4 Zara uses a metal detector to search for coins on a beach.
She wonders if the numbers of coins that she finds in an area of \(10 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) can be modelled by a Poisson distribution. The table below shows the numbers of coins that she finds in randomly chosen areas of \(10 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) over a period of months.
| Number of coins found | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | \(> 6\) |
| Frequency | 13 | 28 | 30 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
- Software gives the sample mean as 1.98 and the sample standard deviation as 1.4212.
Explain how these values suggest that a Poisson distribution may be an appropriate model for the numbers of coins found.
Zara decides to carry out a chi-squared test to investigate whether a Poisson distribution is an appropriate model.
Fig. 4 is a screenshot showing part of the spreadsheet used to analyse the data. Some values in the spreadsheet have been deliberately omitted.
\begin{table}[h]
| A | B | C | D |
| 1 | Number of coins found | Observed frequency | Expected frequency | Chi-squared contribution |
| 2 | 0 | 13 | 13.8069 | 0.0472 |
| 3 | 1 | 28 | | |
| 4 | 2 | 30 | 27.0643 | 0.3184 |
| 5 | 3 | 14 | 17.8625 | 0.8352 |
| 6 | 4 | 10 | 8.8419 | 0.1517 |
| 7 | \(\geqslant 5\) | 5 | | 0.0015 |
| | | | |
\captionsetup{labelformat=empty}
\caption{Fig. 4}
\end{table} - Showing your calculations, find the missing values in each of the following cells.
- C3
- C7
- D3
- Explain why the numbers for 5, 6 and more than 6 coins found have been combined into the single category of at least 5 coins found, as shown in the spreadsheet.
- Complete the hypothesis test at the \(5 \%\) level of significance.
For the rest of this question, you should assume that the number of coins that Zara finds in an area of \(10 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) can be modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean 1.98.
Zara also finds pieces of jewellery independently of the coins she finds. The number of pieces of jewellery that she finds per \(10 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) area is modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean 0.42 . - Find the probability that Zara finds a total of exactly 3 items (coins and/or jewellery) in an area of \(10 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\).
- Find the probability that Zara finds a total of at least 30 items (coins and/or jewellery) in an area of \(100 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\).