Hi On 6 Nov 2003, Curious George wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Curious George) wrote in message > news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... > > I am an instructor, using 'Elementary Statistics: A Brief Version , > > 2/e' by > > Allan G. Bluman. A questions in the database states: > > > > A family has three children. How many combinations of boys and girls > > will be in the sample space? > > > > The answer given is: 8. > > _______________________________ > > > > Even if you allow for 'birth order' I can not identify more than 6 > > possible outcomes. Am I missing something? > > > > Thanks, > > George > > "I see, said the blind man....." I needed to reverse the birth order. > George Depending on what you plan to do later (e.g., binomial), you might want to teach this as a general principle based on the multiplication rule. That is, 2 outcomes (BG) on each of 3 trials gives 2 x 2 x 2 = 2^3 = 8 and then relate this to the enumeration and/or a tree diagram of the outcomes. Best wishes Jim ============================================================================ James M. Clark (204) 786-9757 Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax University of Winnipeg 4L05D Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark ============================================================================ . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
