An AP news service story, printed in the Gainesville Sun | StudySoup

Textbook Solutions for Mathematical Statistics with Applications

Chapter 2 Problem 171SE

Question

An AP news service story, printed in the Gainesville Sun on May 20, 1979, states the following with regard to debris from Skylab striking someone on the ground: “The odds are 1 in 150 that a piece of Skylab will hit someone. But 4 billion people . . . live in the zone in which pieces could fall. So any one person’s chances of being struck are one in 150 times 4 billion - or one in 600 billion.” Do you see any inaccuracies in this reasoning?

Solution

Step 1 of 2

Given that the odds are 1 in 150 a piece of Skylab will hit someone.

Then any one person’s chance of being struck is one in 150 times 4 billion or one in 600 billion.

From the given information we found that the probability that Skylab will hit someone is \(\frac{1}{150}\) without regard to where that person lives.

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full solution

Title Mathematical Statistics with Applications  7 
Author Dennis Wackerly; William Mendenhall; Richard L. Scheaffer
ISBN 9780495110811

An AP news service story, printed in the Gainesville Sun

Chapter 2 textbook questions

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