Chances are 50-50 that a newborn baby will be a girl. For families with five children, what is the probability that all the children are girls?
So far I have: 2X2X2X2X2=32
correct
1/32
Happy New Year!
To correctly calculate the probability, you need to consider that each birth outcome (boy or girl) is independent of the previous ones. The probability of having a girl at each birth is indeed 50%.
To find the probability of all five children being girls, you need to calculate the probability of having a girl for each child and multiply those probabilities together.
Since there are five children, and each one has a 50% chance of being a girl, you can calculate it as follows:
Probability of having a girl = 1/2
Probability of having all girls = (1/2) * (1/2) * (1/2) * (1/2) * (1/2)
Simplifying the expression:
Probability of having all girls = (1/2)^5 = 1/32
So, the probability that all five children in a family are girls is 1/32 or approximately 0.03125, not 32.