Question

members of your local flat earth society meet to examine new photographic evidence that the earth may actually be hyperbolic and that the horizon has negative curvature. example photgraphic evidence posiitve curvature (round earth) zero curvature (flat earth) negative curvature (hyperbolic earth) a total of 62 photographs are examined by society members leo, william and eugenie, and it is determined that 18 show the earth has positive curvature, 40 show the earth has no curvature, and 4 show the earth has negative curvature. a) assume that the earth is flat and that both outcomes (positive or negative) are equally likely. for the sign test, what probability distribution can be used to model the number of photographs with negative curvature?

Answer 1

If we assume that the earth is flat and both outcomes (positive or negative curvature) are equally likely, we can use the binomial distribution to model the number of photographs with negative curvature. The binomial distribution is used when there are two possible outcomes (success or failure) for each trial, and the trials are independent of each other. In this case, the number of photographs with negative curvature would follow a binomial distribution with parameters n = 62 (total number of photographs examined) and p = 0.5 (probability of negative curvature assuming the earth is flat).