Lillian is sitting on a bench in the mall. She noticed that 3 out of the last 15 men who walked by had a beard. What is the experimental probability that the next man to walk by will have a beard? Simplify your answer and write it as a fraction or whole number. P(beard)=

1 answer

To find the experimental probability that the next man to walk by will have a beard, we can use the data that Lillian observed. The experimental probability \( P(\text{beard}) \) is calculated as the number of men with beards divided by the total number of men observed.

In this case, Lillian noticed that 3 out of the last 15 men had a beard. Therefore, we calculate:

\[ P(\text{beard}) = \frac{\text{Number of men with beards}}{\text{Total number of men observed}} = \frac{3}{15}. \]

Next, we simplify the fraction \( \frac{3}{15} \):

Both the numerator and the denominator can be divided by 3:

\[ \frac{3 \div 3}{15 \div 3} = \frac{1}{5}. \]

Thus, the experimental probability that the next man to walk by will have a beard is:

\[ P(\text{beard}) = \frac{1}{5}. \]