AP Statistics – Section 5.3
The imitation of chance, based on a model that accurately reflects the experiment under consideration, is called a simulation.
Example 1 (text):
Suppose we are interested in estimating the likelihood of a couple's having a girl among their first four children. Conduct a
simulation to estimate the probability using:
a. a coin
b. a die
c. a deck of cards
d. a random number table (or calculator generator)
Example 2 (text):
A couple plans to have children until having a girl or having four children, whichever comes first. Use a random number
table to estimate the likelihood that the couple with have a girl.
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Example 3 (text):
A basketball player makes 70% of her free throws in a long season. In a tournament game, she shoots five free throws late in
the game and misses three of them. The fans think she was nervous, but the misses may simply be chance. The task is to
simulate 50 repetitions of the five shots and record the number missed on each repetition. Then calculate the relative
frequency that the player will miss 3 or more of the 5 shots.
The probability that a drilling company strikes oil is 0.1 for each hole drilled. The company goes broke if does not find oil by
the 8th hole dug. Estimate the probability that the company goes broke by simulation 20 times.
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Example 5 (Problem #6 from free response of 1998 AP Statistics exam)
The manager of a cultured pearl farm has received a special order for two pearls between 7 millimeters and 9 millimeters in
diameter. From past experience, the manager knows that the pearls found in his oyster bed have diameters that are normally
distributed with a mean of 8 millimeters and a standard deviation of 2 millimeters. Assume that every oyster contains one
The manager wants to know how many oysters he should expect to open to find two pearls of the appropriate size for this
special order. Complete the following parts to design a simulation to answer the manager’s question.
(a) Determine the probability of finding a pearl of the appropriate size in an oyster selected at random. (Express this
probability as a number between 0 and 1. Round this probability to the nearest tenth.)
(b) Describe how you would use a table of random digits to carry out a simulation to determine the number of oysters
needed to find two pearls of the appropriate size. Include a description of what each of the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, and 9 will represent in your simulation.
(c) Perform your simulation 3 times. (That is, run 3 trials of your simulation.) Start at the upper left most digit in the
first row of the table and move across. Make your procedure clear so that someone can follow what you did. You
must do this by marking directly on or above the table.
48747 76595 32588 38392 84422 80016 37890
71950 22494 00369 51269 87073 73694 97751
17857 52352 21392 22930 43776 10503 58249
80993 52010 88856 23882 73613 57648 47051
63016 73572 22684 02409 37565 52457 01257
40615 63910 09596 10241 03413 77576 74872
57431 29251 77848 98037 81230 38561 69580
06181 97842 48327 37976 81333 10264 77769
Homework: #5.59, 5.61, 5.63, 5.66, 5.68, 5.70, 5.71
Chapter 5 Review Problems: #5.74-5.77, 5.79-5.83, 5.85
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