200 trout are caught, tagged and released in a lake's general population. Let T denote the number of fish tagged that are recaptured when a sample of n trout are caught at a later date. The vidity of the mark recapture method for estimating the lake's total trout population is based on the assumption that T is directly proportional to n. If 10 tagged trout are recovered from a sample of 300 estimate the total trout population of the lake.
Initial Capture and Tag and Release: 200 Second Capture: 300 Number Tagged in Second Capture and Realease 200 is to the Lake trout population as 10 is to 300 200/L = 10/300 where L is the lake population of trout Cross multiply and solve for L. @AleshaNicole
Over at Maths Made Easy, there is a cool online Total Population Calculator. http://www.math.net.au/formulas/recapture.php
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