Suppose that we ask n randomly selected people whether they share your birthday. (a) Give an expression in terms of n for the probability that no one shares your birthday (ignore leap years). $ Correct: Your answer is correct. (b) What is the least number of people we need to select so that the probability is at least 0.8 that at least one person shares your birthday

Respuesta :

Using the binomial distribution, it is found that:

a) The expression is [tex]\left(\frac{364}{365}\right)^{n}[/tex]

b) You need to select at least 587 people.

For each person, there are only two possible outcomes, either they share your birthday, or they do not. The probability of a person sharing your birthday is independent of any other person, hence, the binomial distribution is used to solve this question.

Binomial probability distribution

[tex]P(X = x) = C_{n,x}.p^{x}.(1-p)^{n-x}[/tex]

[tex]C_{n,x} = \frac{n!}{x!(n-x)!}[/tex]

The parameters are:

  • x is the number of successes.
  • n is the number of trials.
  • p is the probability of a success on a single trial.

There are 365 days in a non-leap year, hence, the probability of each person sharing your birthday is [tex]p = \frac{1}{365}[/tex]

Item a:

This probability is P(X = 0), hence:

[tex]P(X = x) = C_{n,x}.p^{x}.(1-p)^{n-x}[/tex]

[tex]P(X = 0) = C_{n,0}.\left(\frac{1}{365}\right)^{0}.\left(\frac{364}{365}\right)^{n} = \left(\frac{364}{365}\right)^{n}[/tex]

Hence, the expression is [tex]\left(\frac{364}{365}\right)^{n}[/tex]

Item b:

The probability that at least one person shares your birthday is:

[tex]P(X \geq 1) = 1 - P(X = 0)[/tex]

We want that:

[tex]P(X \geq 1) \geq 0.8[/tex]

Hence:

[tex]1 - P(X = 0) \geq 0.8[/tex]

[tex]P(X = 0) \leq 0.2[/tex]

Hence:

[tex]\left(\frac{364}{365}\right)^{n} \leq 0.2[/tex]

[tex]n\log{\left(\frac{364}{365}\right)} \leq \log{0.2}[/tex]

[tex]n \geq \frac{\log{0.2}}{\log{\left(\frac{364}{365}\right)}}[/tex]

[tex]n \geq 586.6[/tex]

Rounding up: You need to select at least 587 people.

To learn more about the binomial distribution, you can take a look at https://brainly.com/question/24863377