Chapter 4, Problem 1RSRD

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is required by law to publish a report on assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART includes all fertility treatments in which both the egg and the sperm are used. These procedures generally involve removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body or giving them to another woman.

You are helping to prepare the CDC report and select at random 10 ART cycles for a special review. None of the cycles resulted in a clinical pregnancy. Your manager feels it is impossible to select at random 10 ART cycles that do not result in a clinical pregnancy. Use the pie chart at the right and your knowledge of statistics to determine whether your manager is correct.

EXERCISES

1. How Would You Do It?

1. (a) How would you determine whether your manager is correct, that it is impossible to select at random 10 ART cycles that do not result in a clinical pregnancy?
2. (b) What probability distribution do you think best describes the situation? Do you think the distribution of the number of clinical pregnancies is discrete or continuous? Explain your reasoning.