Consider a basketball player who makes 90% of free throws throughout the season. In a particular game, this basketball player attempted 15 free throws. Let X equal the number of free throws made by the basketball player during the game.

Question

Do you think that the 15 free throw attempts are independent observations?

Answer 1

Yes, the 15 free throw attempts are likely to be independent observations. The independence assumption holds if the outcome of one event (attempting a free throw) does not affect the outcome of the next event. In this case, the success or failure of each free throw does not depend on the previous attempts or outcomes.