Question

who is right?
your school newspaper publishes an article that says that 60% of the students like the food in the cafeteria. this result is based on a survey of 25 students.
from talking to your own friends, you suspect that the average is closer to 40%.
you decide to run a simulation to test your prediction against the newspapers result. you run the simulation 19 more times to see what happens. here are the results of all 20 simulations:
simulation number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
number of students who said they liked the food 11 8 9 9 9 7 6 14 9 10
simulation number 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

1. which was correct — the newspaper story or your prediction?

Explanation:

Step1: Calculate 60% of 25 students

$$0.60 \times 25 = 15$$

Step2: Calculate 40% of 25 students

$$0.40 \times 25 = 10$$

Step3: Analyze simulation results

Count how many simulations have values close to 10 vs 15: Most results (11,8,9,9,9,7,6,9,10) are near 10; only 14 is above 10, none reach 15.

Step4: Compare to predictions

The average of simulation results is closer to 10 (40% of 25) than 15 (60% of 25).

Answer:

Your prediction was correct. The simulation results cluster much closer to 40% (10 out of 25 students) rather than the newspaper's 60% (15 out of 25 students).