


7-1 .
Examples of binomial experiments
Some experiments are composed of repetitions of independent trials , each with two possible outcomes .
The binomial probability distribution may describe the variation that occurs from one set of trials of such a binomial experiment to another .
We devote a chapter to the binomial distribution not only because it is a mathematical model for an enormous variety of real life phenomena , but also because it has important properties that recur in many other probability models .
We begin with a few examples of binomial experiments .
Marksmanship example .

A trained marksman shooting five rounds at a target , all under practically the same conditions , may hit the bull's-eye from 0 to 5 times .
In repeated sets of five shots his numbers of bull's-eyes vary .
What can we say of the probabilities of the different possible numbers of bull's-eyes ? ?
Inheritance in mice .

In litters of eight mice from similar parents , the number of mice with straight instead of wavy hair is an integer from 0 to 8 .
What probabilities should be attached to these possible outcomes ? ?
Aces ( ones ) with three dice .

When three dice are tossed repeatedly , what is the probability that the number of aces is 0 ( or 1 , or 2 , or 3 ) ? ?
General binomial problem .

More generally , suppose that an experiment consists of a number of independent trials , that each trial results in either a `` success '' or a `` non-success '' ( `` failure '' ) , and that the probability of success remains constant from trial to trial .
In the examples above , the occurrence of a bull's-eye , a straight-haired mouse , or an ace could be called a `` success '' .
In general , any outcome we choose may be labeled `` success '' .


The major question in this chapter is : What is the probability of exactly X successes in N trials ? ?


In Chapters 3 and 4 we answered questions like those in the examples , usually by counting points in a sample space .
Fortunately , a general formula of wide applicability solves all problems of this kind .
Before deriving this formula , we explain what we mean by `` problems of this kind '' .


Experiments are often composed of several identical trials , and sometimes experiments themselves are repeated .
In the marksmanship example , a trial consists of `` one round shot at a target '' with outcome either one bull's-eye ( success ) or none ( failure ) .
Further , an experiment might consist of five rounds , and several sets of five rounds might be regarded as a super-experiment composed of several repetitions of the five-round experiment .
If three dice are tossed , a trial is one toss of one die and the experiment is composed of three trials .
Or , what amounts to the same thing , if one die is tossed three times , each toss is a trial , and the three tosses form the experiment .
Mathematically , we shall not distinguish the experiment of three dice tossed once from that of one die tossed three times .
These examples are illustrative of the use of the words `` trial '' and `` experiment '' as they are used in this chapter , but they are quite flexible words and it is well not to restrict them too narrowly .
Example 1 .
Student football managers .

Ten students act as managers for a high-school football team , and of these managers a proportion P are licensed drivers .
Each Friday one manager is chosen by lot to stay late and load the equipment on a truck .
On three Fridays the coach has needed a driver .
Considering only these Fridays , what is the probability that the coach had drivers all 3 times ? ?
Exactly 2 times ? ?
1 time ? ?
0 times ? ?
Discussion .

Note that there are 3 trials of interest .
Each trial consists of choosing a student manager at random .
The 2 possible outcomes on each trial are `` driver '' or `` nondriver '' .
Since the choice is by lot each week , the outcomes of different trials are independent .
The managers stay the same , so that Af is the same for all weeks .
We now generalize these ideas for general binomial experiments .


For an experiment to qualify as a binomial experiment , it must have four properties : ( 1 ) there must be a fixed number of trials , ( 2 ) each trial must result in a `` success '' or a `` failure '' ( a binomial trial ) , ( 3 ) all trials must have identical probabilities of success , ( 4 ) the trials must be independent of each other .
Below we use our earlier examples to describe and illustrate these four properties .
We also give , for each property , an example where the property is absent .
The language and notation introduced are standard throughout the chapter .
1 .
There must be a fixed number n of repeated trials .

For the marksman , we study sets of five shots ( Af ) ; ;
for the mice , we restrict attention to litters of eight ( Af ) ; ;
and for the aces , we toss three dice ( Af ) .
Experiment without a fixed number of trials .

Toss a die until an ace appears .
Here the number of trials is a random variable , not a fixed number .
2 .
Binomial trials .

Each of the N trials is either a success or a failure .
`` Success '' and `` failure '' are just convenient labels for the two categories of outcomes when we talk about binomial trials in general .
These words are more expressive than labels like `` A '' and `` not-A '' .
It is natural from the marksman's viewpoint to call a bull's-eye a success , but in the mice example it is arbitrary which category corresponds to straight hair in a mouse .
The word `` binomial '' means `` of two names '' or `` of two terms '' , and both usages apply in our work : the first to the names of the two outcomes of a binomial trial , and the second to the terms P and Af that represent the probabilities of `` success '' and `` failure '' .
Sometimes when there are many outcomes for a single trial , we group these outcomes into two classes , as in the example of the die , where we have arbitrarily constructed the classes `` ace '' and `` not-ace '' .
Experiment without the two-class property .

We classify mice as `` straight-haired '' or `` wavy-haired '' , but a hairless mouse appears .
We can escape from such a difficulty by ruling out the animal as not constituting a trial , but such a solution is not always satisfactory .
3 .
All trials have identical probabilities of success .

Each die has probability Af of producing an ace ; ;
the marksman has some probability p , perhaps 0.1 , of making a bull's-eye .
Note that we need not know the value of p , for the experiment to be binomial .
Experiment where p is not constant .

During a round of target practice the sun comes from behind a cloud and dazzles the marksman , lowering his chance of a bull's-eye .
4 .
The trials are independent .

Strictly speaking , this means that the probability for each possible outcome of the experiment can be computed by multiplying together the probabilities of the possible outcomes of the single binomial trials .
Thus in the three-dice example Af , Af , and the independence assumption imply that the probability that the three dice fall ace , not-ace , ace in that order is Af .
Experimentally , we expect independence when the trials have nothing to do with one another .
Examples where independence fails .

A family of five plans to go together either to the beach or to the mountains , and a coin is tossed to decide .
We want to know the number of people going to the mountains .
When this experiment is viewed as composed of five binomial trials , one for each member of the family , the outcomes of the trials are obviously not independent .
Indeed , the experiment is better viewed as consisting of one binomial trial for the entire family .
The following is a less extreme example of dependence .
Consider couples visiting an art museum .
Each person votes for one of a pair of pictures to receive a popular prize .
Voting for one picture may be called `` success '' , for the other `` failure '' .
An experiment consists of the voting of one couple , or two trials .
In repetitions of the experiment from couple to couple , the votes of the two persons in a couple probably agree more often than independence would imply , because couples who visit the museum together are more likely to have similar tastes than are a random pair of people drawn from the entire population of visitors .
Table 7-1 illustrates the point .
The table shows that 0.6 of the boys and 0.6 of the girls vote for picture A .
Therefore , under independent voting , Af or 0.36 of the couples would cast two votes for picture A , and Af or 0.16 would cast two votes for picture B .
Thus in independent voting , Af or 0.52 of the couples would agree .
But Table 7-1 shows that Af or 0.70 agree , too many for independent voting .


Each performance of an n-trial binomial experiment results in some whole number from 0 through N as the value of the random variable X , where Af .
We want to study the probability function of this random variable .
For example , we are interested in the number of bull's-eyes , not which shots were bull's-eyes .
A binomial experiment can produce random variables other than the number of successes .
For example , the marksman gets 5 shots , but we take his score to be the number of shots before his first bull's-eye , that is , 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ( or 5 , if he gets no bull's-eye ) .
Thus we do not score the number of bull's-eyes , and the random variable is not the number of successes .
The constancy of P and the independence are the conditions most likely to give trouble in practice .
Obviously , very slight changes in P do not change the probabilities much , and a slight lack of independence may not make an appreciable difference .
( For instance , see Example 2 of Section 5-5 , on red cards in hands of 5 .
) On the other hand , even when the binomial model does not describe well the physical phenomenon being studied , the binomial model may still be used as a baseline for comparative purposes ; ;
that is , we may discuss the phenomenon in terms of its departures from the binomial model .
To summarize :
A binomial experiment consists of Af independent binomial trials , all with the same probability Af of yielding a success .
The outcome of the experiment is X successes .
The random variable X takes the values Af with probabilities Af or , more briefly Af .


We shall find a formula for the probability of exactly X successes for given values of P and N .
When each number of successes X is paired with its probability of occurrence Af , the set of pairs Af , is a probability function called a binomial distribution .
The choice of P and N determines the binomial distribution uniquely , and different choices always produce different distributions ( except when Af ; ;
then the number of successes is always 0 ) .
The set of all binomial distributions is called the family of binomial distributions , but in general discussions this expression is often shortened to `` the binomial distribution '' , or even `` the binomial '' when the context is clear .
Binomial distributions were treated by James Bernoulli about 1700 , and for this reason binomial trials are sometimes called Bernoulli trials .
Random variables .

Each binomial trial of a binomial experiment produces either 0 or 1 success .
Therefore each binomial trial can be thought of as producing a value of a random variable associated with that trial and taking the values 0 and 1 , with probabilities Q and P respectively .
The several trials of a binomial experiment produce a new random variable X , the total number of successes , which is just the sum of the random variables associated with the single trials .
Example 2 .

The marksman gets two bull's-eyes , one on his third shot and one on his fifth .
The numbers of successes on the five individual shots are , then , 0 , 0 , 1 , 0 , 1 .
The number of successes on each shot is a value of a random variable that has values 0 or 1 , and there are 5 such random variables here .
Their sum is X , the total number of successes , which in this experiment has the value Af .

