A national college researcher reported that 66% of students who graduated from high school in 2014 enrolled in college. Thirty two high school graduates are sampled.

(a) What is the mean number who enroll in college in a sample of 32 high school graduates? Round the answer to two decimal places.
b) What is the standard deviation of the number who enroll in college in a sample of 32 high school graduates? Round the answer to four decimal places.

1 answer

To solve the problems, we can use the properties of a binomial distribution, since the problem involves a fixed number of trials (high school graduates), each with two possible outcomes (enrolling in college or not).

Given:

  • The probability of success (enrolling in college) \( p = 0.66 \)
  • The number of trials (students sampled) \( n = 32 \)

(a) Mean Number Who Enroll in College

The mean \( \mu \) in a binomial distribution is calculated using the formula:

\[ \mu = n \times p \]

Substituting the values:

\[ \mu = 32 \times 0.66 = 21.12 \]

So, the mean number who enroll in college in a sample of 32 high school graduates is 21.12.

(b) Standard Deviation of the Number Who Enroll in College

The standard deviation \( \sigma \) for a binomial distribution is calculated using the formula:

\[ \sigma = \sqrt{n \times p \times (1 - p)} \]

Where \( (1 - p) \) is the probability of failure (not enrolling in college).

Calculating \( 1 - p \):

\[ 1 - p = 1 - 0.66 = 0.34 \]

Now substituting the values into the standard deviation formula:

\[ \sigma = \sqrt{32 \times 0.66 \times 0.34} \]

Calculating inside the square root:

\[ \sigma = \sqrt{32 \times 0.66 \times 0.34} = \sqrt{32 \times 0.2244} = \sqrt{7.1552} \approx 2.6734 \]

Thus, the standard deviation of the number who enroll in college in a sample of 32 high school graduates is approximately 2.6734 (rounded to four decimal places).

Summary

  • (a) Mean: 21.12
  • (b) Standard Deviation: 2.6734