Question

According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau, 49.65% of Texas residents were male.

Consider the experiment of selecting ten Texans at random. If you are interested in determining the probabilities of selecting x males, is this a binomial probability distribution? And if so, what are the values of n, p, and q?

Answer 1

in a binomial probability, you only have two choices... in this case if it is not male then it is a female....
in the experiment, 10 Texans will be selected at random... therefore n = 10 trials
since there are only two sex upon random selection... male or female, the probability P(male) = p = 1/2 = 0.5
P(female) = q = 1/2 = 0.5

Answer 2

mostly agree with the previous response, but want to point out that the probability is not 1/2 in this case since it's based on a Texas census, which shows a slightly different probability (49.65% of Texas residents were male.)