Question Video: Calculating the Experimental Probability to Find the Expected Number of Outcomes Mathematics • Second Year of Preparatory School

Video Transcript

The table shows the results from a survey where 20 students from a school were asked to pick their favorite fruit from three options. By calculating the experimental probability that a student’s favorite fruit is orange, calculate how many of the 400 students in the school would choose an orange as their favorite.

So there were 20 students in the survey, and eight of them chose an orange as their favorite fruit, so eight students out of the 20 students chose orange, which reduces to two-fifths because eight and 20 can both be divided by four.

So if two-fifths of the students will choose an orange, then we need to take the 400 total students and multiply by the two-fifths, because the experimental probability of students choosing an orange based on the survey was two-fifths, so if there are 400 total students, we need to take that total and multiply by the probability of choosing an orange as their favorite fruit.

So we can put 400 over one and then multiply numerator together and multiply the denominators together. So we get 800 fifths, which reduces to 160. Therefore, out of 400 students, 160 students would choose an orange as their favorite fruit.