The Census Bureau says that the 10 most common names in the United States are (in order) Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Jones, Miller, Davis, Garcia, Rodriguez, Wilson. These names account for 9.6% of all U.S. residents.

2. Out of curiosity, you look at the authors of the textbooks for your current courses. There are 8 authors in all. Would you be surprised if none of the names of these authors were among the 10 most common?
Give a probability to support your answer. Your answer should be rounded to three decimal places.

Question

The Census Bureau says that the 10 most common names in the United States are (in order) Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Jones, Miller, Davis, Garcia, Rodriguez, Wilson. These names account for 9.6% of all U.S. residents.


 

2. Out of curiosity, you look at the authors of the textbooks for your current courses. There are 8 authors in all. Would you be surprised if none of the names of these authors were among the 10 most common?
Give a probability to support your answer. Your answer should be rounded to three decimal places.

anonymous · Answer

I am not sure if my answer is correct but I will show you my logic.

9.6%  that a us residents last name is one of those 10 common last names
90.4% that a us resident DOESNT have one of those 10 common last names

So we want to know what is the probabilty that all 8 authors dont have one of those 10 common last names.
For each of teh 8 authors there is the probability of .904 that they dont have one of those  10 last names so $$ (.904)^8=.446$$

anonymous · Answer

Does this seem familiar?
Have you studied the Binomial distribution?
Its kind of an offshoot of the binomial distribution