Final answer:
To find the probability that a sample of 10 items contains at most 3 defective items, we can use the binomial distribution. The formula for this is P(X=k) = C(n, k) * p^k * (1-p)^(n-k), where n is the sample size, p is the probability of a defective item, and k is the number of defective items. Calculate the probabilities for each value of k (0 to 3) and add them together to get the final answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
To solve this problem, we can use the binomial distribution.
The formula for the probability of getting k successes in n trials is P(X=k) = C(n, k) * p^k * (1-p)^(n-k), where C(n, k) is the number of combinations of n objects taken k at a time and p is the probability of success.
In this case, n = 10 (the size of the sample) and p = 0.2 (the probability of a defective item).
We want to find the probability that the sample contains at most 3 defective items, so we need to find P(X=0) + P(X=1) + P(X=2) + P(X=3).
Using the formula, we can calculate:
P(X=0) = C(10, 0) * (0.2)^0 * (0.8)^10
P(X=1) = C(10, 1) * (0.2)^1 * (0.8)^9
P(X=2) = C(10, 2) * (0.2)^2 * (0.8)^8
P(X=3) = C(10, 3) * (0.2)^3 * (0.8)^7
Add these probabilities together to get the final answer.