Many types of studies have been done to see whether animals have a sense of number. In one study (Beran & Beran, 2004), researchers wanted to see whether chimpanzees could remember how many items were added to a container when they see them added one at a time. To do this they had two containers set up so the chimpanzees could not see inside them. They randomly added bananas to the containers one at a time and then had the chimpanzees choose the container they wanted. In one set of experiments, they added 3 bananas to one container and 4 to the other and had a chimpanzee named Mercury pick which container he wanted. In 20 trials, he picked the container containing 4 bananas 16 times. Does this provide evidence that Mercury is more likely to pick the container with more bananas rather than fewer bananas in the long run? 

a. If we let heads represent a correct guess and tails represent an incorrect guess, how many times would you need to flip a coin to model the outcomes for a chimpanzee just randomly picking a container in the test the researchers gave Mercury? 

b. Use the One Proportion applet to answer the question, “Is it unlikely that Mercury picked the container containing 4 bananas rather than 3 bananas 16 out of 20 times by chance alone?” Explain how you determined your answer based on the results in the applet. 

c. Would you say that we have strong evidence that Mercury is not just randomly picking a container but has a tendency to choose the container that contains more bananas?