Suppose that past history shows that 60% of college students prefer Coca-Cola. A sample of 10 students is to be selected. Which of the following distributions would you use to figure out the probability that at least half of them will prefer Coca-Cola?
A) binomial distribution
B) Poisson distribution
C) both of the above
D) none of the above

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The binomial distribution is used when we have a fixed sample size (in this case, 10) and two possible outcomes (prefer Coca-Cola or not) with a known probability of success (60%). We are interested in the probability of at least half (i.e. 5 or more) of the students preferring Coca-Cola, which falls under the parameter of the binomial distribution. The Poisson distribution is used when we want to model the number of events occurring over a continuous interval, which is not applicable in this scenario.

Suppose That Past History Shows That 60% of College Students