The
purpose of this experiment was to investigate weather the Lincoln-Peterson
Mark-Racapture Methods were accurate ways to find out a population.
To perform this experiment, 100 clear marbles were placed in a
large bowl, and 100 multi-colored marbles were placed in a second
large bowl. One large handful or clear marbles was scooped up,
and each number of marbles that were taken out were replaced by
the same number or mulit-colored marbles. Do the same thing again,
and count how many multi-colored marbles were in the second handful.
Repeat the experiment 20 times.
After completing this experiment, it was found that the average
number of Marbles in sample #1 (all clear) was 10.47, the average
for marbles in sample #2 (all clear) was 8.94 and the average
for sample #2 (all colored) was 2.15. After completing
the experiment, the population estimate was 53, which is far from
100 (which is the real population, so the experiment was repeated
for 4 more trials, using a larger handful, and the population
estimate was then 97.7 and therefore, the population methods
are accurate.
