Number of White Balls Selected Number of Red Balls Selected
Bowl A 5 15
Bowl B 16 4
Clark’s Results
Number of White Balls Selected Number of Red Balls Selected
Bowl A 45 55
Bowl B 60 40
Bowls A and B contain a number of white and red balls. Simon and Clark repeatedly selected a ball from both bowls and recorded the results in a table. Whose results will give you a better indication about the proportion of white and red balls in each bowl? Explain your answer.
a Neither; they conducted the same number of trials.
b Clark’s experiment. He conducted a greater number of trials than Simon.
c Simon’s experiment. He conducted a greater number of trials than Clark.
d Both results can be used, as they performed the experiment at random.
b Clark’s experiment. He conducted a greater number of trials than Simon. The larger the sample size, the more accurate the results will be. Clark’s results include more data points, so they give a better indication of the proportion of white and red balls in each bowl.
b Clark’s experiment. He conducted a greater number of trials than Simon.
The reason is that the more trials conducted, the more representative the results are likely to be. With a larger number of trials, the results are more likely to reflect the true proportion of white and red balls in each bowl. Therefore, Clark’s results will provide a better indication about the proportion of white and red balls in each bowl compared to Simon’s results.
To determine which results will give a better indication about the proportion of white and red balls in each bowl, we need to consider the number of trials conducted by Simon and Clark.
Looking at the table, we can see that Simon conducted 5 trials for Bowl A and 16 trials for Bowl B. On the other hand, Clark conducted 45 trials for Bowl A and 60 trials for Bowl B.
Comparing the number of trials conducted by Simon and Clark, we can see that Clark performed a greater number of trials for both bowls.
When it comes to statistical inference, a larger sample size generally provides more reliable results. With a larger number of trials, Clark's experiment is more likely to give a better indication of the proportion of white and red balls in each bowl compared to Simon's experiment. Hence, the correct answer is option b: Clark's experiment. He conducted a greater number of trials than Simon.