elementary statistics

Question

For each of the following scenarios, determine whether the Poisson distribution is appropriate as a model for finding probabilities.

1. A manufacturer of Christmas tree light bulbs knows that 3% of the bulbs are defective. The manufacturer wants to find the probability that a string of 100 light bulbs contains at most four defective bulbs.  
2. Yes
3. No
4. Suppose the probability that an adult in America will watch the Super Bowl each year is 40%. We are interested in the number of adults we must survey until we find one who watches the Super Bowl.  
5. Yes
6. No
7. A school newspaper reporter decides to randomly survey 6 students to see if they will attend Tet (Vietnamese New Year) festivities this year. Based on past years, she knows that 65% of students attend Tet festivities. She wants to calculate the probability that at most two students will attend.  
8. Yes
9. No

 

Answer 1

I think it would Yes, No, No:

(1)  Could be either Poisson or Binomial

(2)  Geometric

(3)  Binomial

The main thing you’re looking for in this type of question is that for the Poisson to be appropriate you need to know the chance of success and for the number of events to be in a fixed interval (so like a set amount of days). That way you can find the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time.

Out of this list it looks like only #1 meets that criteria.