The Local Police Department Must Write, on Average, 5 Tickets

question 159

Multiple Choice

The local police department must write, on average, 5 tickets a day to keep department revenues at budgeted levels. Suppose the number of tickets written per day follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of 6.5 tickets per day. Interpret the value of the mean.

• A) Half of the days have less than 6.5 tickets written and half of the days have more than 6.5 tickets written.
• B) The number of tickets that is written most often is 6.5 tickets per day.
• C) If we sampled all days, the arithmetic average or expected number of tickets written would be 6.5 tickets per day.
• D) The mean has no interpretation since 0.5 ticket can never be written.

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