Suppose the probability of a car accident taking place anywhere on a stretch of a 20 miles highway is the same.Which of the following distributions would you use to determine the probability that a car accident will occur somewhere between the 5-mile and 15-mile posts of the highway?
A)Normal distribution.
B)Poisson distribution.
C)Uniform distribution.
D)Exponential distribution.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

We would use the uniform distribution in this case because the probability of a car accident is assumed to be the same at any point along the 20-mile stretch of highway. This means that the probability of an accident occurring between the 5-mile and 15-mile posts is proportional to the length of that segment of the highway, which is 10 miles. Therefore, the probability of an accident occurring in that segment is 1/2 or 0.5. The uniform distribution is appropriate for situations where all outcomes are equally likely.

Suppose the Probability of a Car Accident Taking Place Anywhere