In: Statistics and Probability
The Smith family was one of the first to come to the U.S. They had 9 children. Assuming that the probability of a child being a girl is .5, find the probability that the Smith family had: at least 8 girls? at most 7 girls?
Solution:
Given:
The Smith family was one of the first to come to the U.S. They had 9 children.
Thus Sample size = n = 9
p = the probability of a child being a girl = 0.5
thus q = 1 - p = 1 - 0.5 = 0.5
Part a) Find the probability that the Smith family had at least 8 girls.
That is find: 
Here X = Number of girls follows a Binomial distribution with parameters n = 9 and p = 0.5

Thus using binomial probability distribution, we get:

where

Thus






and






Thus




Thus the probability that the Smith family had at least 8 girls
is   
Part b) Find the probability that the Smith family had at most 7 girls.
That is:




the probability that the Smith family had at most 7 girls is
 .