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5.015 Sampling methods

Interactive practice questions

Conservationists previously captured, tagged and released $400$400 whales in a sanctuary. Some time later a large number of whales were observed, and $34%$34% were found to be tagged. Estimate $n$n, the population of the whales in the sanctuary.

Round your answer to the nearest whole number if necessary.

Medium
2 min

The capture recapture technique was used to estimate the population of cuttlefish. At the beginning of the year the number of cuttlefish caught, tagged and released was $210$210. When $700$700 cuttlefish were taken at the end of the year, $140$140 of them were found to be recaptured tagged ones.

Medium
2 min

A researcher captures a sample of $400$400 fish in a river, tags them and then releases them. The following day he captures a sample of $1200$1200 fish, of which $100$100 have tags attached to them. Estimate $p$p, the number of fish in the river.

Medium
1 min

A local council wanted to monitor the number of rabbits in the area. They used the capture-recapture technique to estimate the population of rabbits. $219$219 rabbits were caught, tagged and released. Later, $42$42 rabbits were caught at random. $15$15 of these $42$42 rabbits had been tagged.

Medium
2 min
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Outcomes

ACMEM130

investigate the different kinds of samples; for example, systematic samples, self-selected samples, simple random samples

ACMEM132

identify the target population to be surveyed

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