A university sends a monthly newsletter on health to its employees. One issue included a column called "What Is the Chance?" that said:
Chance that you'll die in a car accident this year: 1 in 75.
There are about 310 million people in the US. About 40000 people die each year from motor vehicle accidents. What is the chance a typical person will die in a motor vehicle accident this year.
40,000/310,000,000 = 4/31,000 = ?
1 in 7750
21.29
To calculate the chance that a typical person will die in a motor vehicle accident this year, we need to use the given information.
First, let's gather the relevant data:
- There are about 310 million people in the US.
- About 40,000 people die each year from motor vehicle accidents.
Now, we can calculate the chance by following these steps:
Step 1: Convert the odds mentioned in the newsletter to a probability:
The newsletter states that the chance of dying in a car accident this year is 1 in 75. To convert this to a probability, we take the reciprocal of the odds: 1/75 ≈ 0.0133 (rounded to four decimal places). This means that the probability of dying in a car accident this year is approximately 0.0133.
Step 2: Calculate the probability for one person:
To find the probability of a typical person dying in a motor vehicle accident this year, we divide the number of deaths (40,000) by the population size (310 million):
Probability for one person = Number of deaths / Population size
= 40,000 / 310,000,000
≈ 0.000129 (rounded to six decimal places)
Step 3: Calculate the chance for a typical person:
To find the chance (probability) that a typical person will die in a motor vehicle accident this year, we multiply the probability for one person by the previously calculated probability from the newsletter:
Chance for a typical person = Probability for one person * Probability mentioned in the newsletter
≈ 0.000129 * 0.0133
≈ 0.000001716 (rounded to nine decimal places)
Therefore, the chance that a typical person will die in a motor vehicle accident this year is approximately 0.000001716, or about 0.0001716%.