Example 4.21 from Statistics, 4.5 Hypergeometric Distribution (Optional)
A candy dish contains 100 jelly beans and 80 gumdrops. Fifty candies are picked at random. What is the probability that 35 of the 50 are gumdrops? The two groups are jelly beans and gumdrops. Since the probability question asks for the probability of picking gumdrops, the group of interest (first group) is gumdrops. The size of the group of interest (first group) is 80. The size of the second group is 100. The size of the sample is 50 (jelly beans or gumdrops). Let X = the number of gumdrops in the sample of 50. X takes on the values x = 0, 1, 2, . . . , 50. What is the probability statement written mathematically?
Work it out on paper first. Then open the solution one step at a time, and stop as soon as you can finish on your own.
P(x = 35)
How did it go?