Theory and ExamplesGroup blood testing During World War II
Chapter 4, Problem 26AAE(choose chapter or problem)
Problem 26AAE
Theory and Examples
Group blood testing During World War II it was necessary to administer blood tests to large numbers of recruits. There are two standard ways to administer a blood test to N people. In method 1, each person is tested separately. In method 2, the blood samples of x people are pooled and tested as one large sample. If the test is negative, this one test is enough for all x people. If the test is positive, then each of the x people is tested separately, requiring a total of x + 1 tests. Using the second method and some probability theory it can be shown that, on the average, the total number of tests y will be
With q = 0.99 and N = 1000, find the integer value of x that minimizes y. Also find the integer value of x that maximizes y. (This second result is not important to the real-life situation.) The group testing method was used in World War II with a savings of 80% over the individual testing method, but not with the given value of q.
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