You have received a radioactive mass that is claimed to have a mean decay rate of at least 1 particle per second. If the mean decay rate is less than 1 per second, you may return the product for a refund. Let X be the number of decay events counted in 10 seconds. a) If the mean decay rate is exactly 1 per second (so that the claim is true, but just barely), what is P(X ≤ 1)? b) Based on the answer to part (a), if the mean decay rate is 1 particle per second, would one event in 10 seconds be an unusually small number? c) If you counted one decay event in 10 seconds, would this be convincing evidence that the product should be returned? Explain. d) If the mean decay rate is exactly 1 per second, what is P(X ≤ 8)? e) Based on the answer to part (d), if the mean decay rate is 1 particle per second, would eight events in 10 seconds be an unusually small number? f) If you counted eight decay events in 10 seconds, would this be convincing evidence that the product should be returned? Explain.
Continuous Probability Distributions
Probability distributions are of two types, which are continuous probability distributions and discrete probability distributions. A continuous probability distribution contains an infinite number of values. For example, if time is infinite: you could count from 0 to a trillion seconds, billion seconds, so on indefinitely. A discrete probability distribution consists of only a countable set of possible values.
Normal Distribution
Suppose we had to design a bathroom weighing scale, how would we decide what should be the range of the weighing machine? Would we take the highest recorded human weight in history and use that as the upper limit for our weighing scale? This may not be a great idea as the sensitivity of the scale would get reduced if the range is too large. At the same time, if we keep the upper limit too low, it may not be usable for a large percentage of the population!
You have received a radioactive mass that is claimed to have a mean decay rate of at least 1 particle per second. If the mean decay rate is less than 1 per second, you may return the product for a refund. Let X be the number of decay events counted in 10 seconds. a) If the mean decay rate is exactly 1 per second (so that the claim is true, but just barely), what is P(X ≤ 1)? b) Based on the answer to part (a), if the mean decay rate is 1 particle per second, would one event in 10 seconds be an unusually small number? c) If you counted one decay event in 10 seconds, would this be convincing evidence that the product should be returned? Explain. d) If the mean decay rate is exactly 1 per second, what is P(X ≤ 8)? e) Based on the answer to part (d), if the mean decay rate is 1 particle per second, would eight events in 10 seconds be an unusually small number? f) If you counted eight decay events in 10 seconds, would this be convincing evidence that the product should be returned? Explain.
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