3. In-class activity Suppose we want to identify the probability distribution fo

Question

3. In-class activity Suppose we want to identify the probability distribution for the number of children born to randomly selected couples. For each student in the class, find the number of brothers and sisters and record the total number of children (including the student) in each family. Construct the relative frequency table for the result obtained. (The values of the random variable x will be 1, 2, 3,...) What is wrong with using this relative frequency table as an estimate of the probability distribution for the number of children born to randomly selected couples?

Explanation / Answer

The sampling scheme for this study is wrong! We want to estimate the probability distribution of number of children for randomly selected couples where as this study only considers couples whose at least of the children are studying in this class. This study includes selection bias. Also it might happen some couple have no children making 0 is also a possibility for the random variable but this study will ignore that as well. Hence this study and the relative frequency table are misleading to estimate the population distribution of number of children per couple.

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