M 270 TUTORIALS 2021/2022: INTRODUCTION TO PROBALITY AND STATISTICS I

Data collection: Samples, surveys and experiments

1. Explain each of the following terms with an appropriate example. (a) Census (b) random
sample (c) quota sample.

2. What is ‘bias’ in the statistical context? Explain how bias could arise in the selection of a
sampling frame.

3. What is response bias? Explain how bias could arise at any of the eight stages in survey
design given in the text.

4. (a) Explain the following (i) a simple random sample (ii) a stratified random sample (iii) a
cluster sample (iv) a multistage sample.
(b) Which type of sample would you use for the following surveys?
(i) Views on statistics held by the current first year students attending the statistics course.
(ii) Support for a football team by the members of the football supporters club.
(iii) The views of primary school children on homework.

5. Explain the methods used to select the sample of your choice in 4(b) above

6. How would you contact those selected for your sample in 4(b) above. How would you deal
with non-response?

7. What is a quota sample? Explain, stage by stage, how you would organise and conduct a
survey on the views of those who use public transport.

8. Give the main reasons for using a quota sample. Explain how you would select a sample from
the population of people who have high cholesterol.

Descriptive statistics.

9. A sample of five firms showed the following percentage changes in earnings per share in the
current year compared with the previous year: 17.3, 16.5, 20.3, 14.7, 25.3. Compute the
mean, the variance, the mode and the median

10. The following data represent the examination scores obtained by 100 students in a first year
mathematics course:

40 41 42 44 45 46 46 46 47 47 47 47
48 48 49 50 50 50 51 51 52 52 52 52
52 52 53 53 53 53 53 53 54 54 54 55
55 55 55 56 56 56 56 56 57 57 57 57
57 57 57 57 57 57 57 58 58 58 58 58
58 58 59 59 59 59 60 60 60 60 61 61
61 61 61 62 62 62 63 63 63 63 64 64
64 65 65 66 66 67 67 67 67 68 68 69
70 71 72 74

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a) Construct a stem-and-leaf plot and use it to determine the mode and the median for
ungrouped data.
b) Construct an absolute cumulative frequency distribution.
c) Construct a histogram, a frequency polygon, and use the histogram to estimate the mode and
use the cumulative frequency polygon to estimate the median.
d) Determine the mean, the mode, the median, the variance, the standard deviation, and the
coefficient of skewness for grouped data. Interpret correctly these numbers.

11. The following sample data represent the per pound cost (in dollars) of raw materials used in
processing batches of a chemical feedstock:

12.01 11.30 12.29 10.12 11.13 12.15 13.81 12.27 13.84 14.25
14.90 16.98 11.51 14.82 12.14 12.57 15.58 17.05 11.62 13.63
11.24 15.23 12.06 17.02 13.41 14.21 11.10 12.57 12.33 13.34
14.40 12.38 15.06 12.56 15.67 13.21 12.03 13.11 16.31 13.43
12.87 12.90 11.16 13.95 12.17 16.50 11.20 13.31 12.74 14.78

a) Construct a frequency distribution with class width = $ 2.00 starting with $ 10.00, and give
both the frequency and the cumulative relative frequency for each class.
b) Determine the mean, the variance, the mode and the median.

12. The amounts of time spent by a random sample of 200 CBU students studying in the week
before the final exams are summarized in the table below.

Study time ( Hours) Number of students

[ 0 - 10 [ 40
[ 10 - 20 [ 60
[ 20 - 30 [ 70
[ 30 - 40 [ 30

Determine the mean, the median, the mode, the variance, the standard deviation, the coefficient of
skewness and the coefficient of variation. Interpret correctly these numbers.

13. A sample of CBU first year students has been categorized by school (SB, SBE and SOT),
type of program (degree or diploma), gender (male, female). The number of students in each
category is summarized below:

SB SBE SOT
Diploma Degree Diploma Degree Diploma Degree
M F M F M F M F M F M F
15 10 60 40 8 2 50 15 25 5 60 10
Determine the sample proportion of students who are (a) in SOT, (b) female, (c) pursuing degree
programs.

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Probability
3. Probability concepts
3.1. Sample spaces - Events – Assigning probabilities to events.

14. The School of Mathematics orders paper supplies from one of three vendors, V1, V2, and V3.
Orders are to be placed on two successive days, one order per day. Thus (V 2, V3) might denote
that vendor V2 gets the order on the first day and vendor 3 gets it on the second day.
a. List the possible outcomes in this experiment of ordering paper on two successive days.
b. Assume the vendors are selected at random each day and assign a probability to each outcome.
c. Let A denote the event that the same vendor gets both orders and B the event that vendor V2
gets at least one order. Find P (A) and P(B).

15. The University has received a consignment of five identical personal computers from the
manufacturer. Two of the five are defective. If a sample of two PCs is randomly selected:
a. List the sample space for this experiment.
b. If E denotes the event that the sample contains two non-defective PCs, list the outcomes of this
event and compute the probability of event E.

16. A corporation has two contracts that are going to be assigned to one or more of three firms for
these contracts (on firm could receive both contracts).
a. List the possible outcomes for the assignment of contracts to the firms.
b. If all outcomes are equally likely, find the probability that both contracts go to the same firm.
c. Under the assumptions of part b, find the probability that one specific firm, say firm one, gets
at least one contract.

17. A production process results in 27 defective items for each 1,000 items produced. What is the
probability of a defective item?

18. A sample of students with bursaries in the School of Business are classified according to
majors and gender. The following data apply:

Gender Majors
Accounting Finance Marketing Business
Administration
Male 30 40 35 50
Female 15 25 5 10
Determine the probability of the following events:
a. Finance major. b. Accounting major. c. Male d. Female in Business Administration

19. The probability that there would be a flood in any year is 0.1. In a 10-year period,
what is the probability of (a) no floods (b) two or fewer floods, (c) From one to three
floods?

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3.2. Counting techniques.

20. The secretaries of a life insurance company file insurance policies by classifying a person
according to age, sex, and marital status. Age is classified as under 25, 25 to 30, and over 50.
Marital status is single or married. What is the total number of classifications?

21. A university has 100 lecturers, 20 senior lecturers and 10 professors. If an employee is chosen
from each of these three categories, how many different combinations of three employees are
possible?

22. A personnel manager gives each job applicant a battery of 7 tests, A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
The tests are unrelated and may be given in any order. How many different sequences can be used
in administering these tests?

23. A committee consists of 10 people. It is decided to appoint a chairman, a vice-chairman, and a

secretary-treasurer. How many different ways can this be done?

24. Seven lecturers have applied for the post of senior lecturers. However, only two lecturers can
be appointed as senior lecturers. How many different combinations of two lecturers can be
appointed as senior lecturers?

25. Suppose that 10 students are eligible for 6 scholarships to be awarded. In how many different
ways could the scholarships be awarded if
a. Each scholarship is worth $ 500?
b. Two scholarships are worth $ 750 each and 4 are worth $ 375?

26 a. An experiment consists of assigning 10 students to 10 different firms for their vacation jobs.
In how many different ways can the ten students be assigned to the ten firms?

b. If there are 4 firms available for 4 second year students, 3 firms available for 3 third year
students and 3 firms for 3 fourth year students, in how many different ways can the assignment
be done?

c. Suppose there are only four different firms available for the ten students. In how many different
ways can four students be selected from the ten and assigned to the four firms.

3.3. Basic probability rules.

Refer to problem 14. Find P(A  B) and P(A B).

27. A mathematics research team is submitting bids to two consultancy jobs A and B. The
probability that the team will win job A is P (A) = 1/4 and that for B is P(B) = 1/3.
a. Assuming that winning job A and winning job B are independent events, what is the
probability that the team will get at least a job?

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b. What is the probability that the team got job A if it has won at least one job?
c. If the team is also submitting a bid for job C with probability of wining it P(C) = 1/4, what is
the probability that they will get at least one job? Again assume statistical independence among
A, B, and C.
d. What is the probability that the team will not get any job at all?
28. A small bank has 100 customers having both checking and savings accounts. The customers
are categorized according to their average monthly account balances as follows:

Savings accounts
Checking accounts Under $ 1000 $ 1000 or more
Under $ 500 300 400
$ 500 or more 200 100

Let A denote the set of people with savings of $ 1000 or more and B denote the set of people with
checking accounts of $ 500 or more. If a person is selected at random, find the following:
a. P(A) b. P(B) c. P(A B) d. P(A  B) f. P(A/B) e. P( A  B )

29. An investment broker has provided all clients with a list of several possible independent
investments, each having a probability of 0.7 of yielding a substantial profit. A client decides to
purchase four of the investments.
a. What is the probability that all four yield a profit?
b. What is the probability that the client’s first four investments are not profitable?

30. A national credit card company is interested in getting more young female customers. In a
recent survey, the company gathered data on the marital and employment status of 25 year-old
women.
Suppose that 60 % of all 25-year-old women are married, 5 0 % have full-time job, and 25 % are
both married and have full-time jobs.
a. Given that a 25-old-year woman has a full-time job, what is the probability that she is married?
b. What is the probability that a 25-year-old woman has a full-time job given that she is married?

31. A statistics class has 20 female students and 25 male students. The lecturer is interested in
selecting a sample of 10 students consisting of 4 female students and 6 and male students. In how
many ways can this be formed? What is the probability of having a sample of size 10 consisting
of 4 female students and 6 male students?

32. A mathematics class combines 25 students from Computer science department, 16 from
mathematics department, 24 from chemical department, and 15 from biology department. The
lecturer is interested in selecting at random 20 students for a special project. What is the
probability that the selected students are 7 from computer science, 4 from mathematics, 6 from
chemical, and 3 from biology?

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3.4. Bayes’ Theorem.

33. Two methods, A and B, are available for teaching a certain mathematical skill. The failure
rate is 20% for A and 10% for B. However, B is more expensive and hence is used only 30% of
the time. (A is used the other 70%) A student was taught the skill by one of the methods but
failed to learn it correctly. What is the probability that he was taught by method A?

34. A manufacturing firm produces units of a product in four plants. Define event A i : a unit is
produced in plant i , i = 1,2,3,4 and event B: a unit is defective. From the past records of
proportions of defectives produced at each plant the following conditional probabilities are set:
P(B/A1) = 0.05, P(B/A2) = 0.10, P(B/A3) = 0.15 and P(B/A4) = 0.02. The first plant produces 30%
of the product, the second plant 25%, the third plant 40% and the fourth plant 5%. A unit of the
product made at one of these plants is tested and is found to be defective. What is the probability
that the unit was produced in plant 3?

35. In a mathematics class 40% of the students got distinction in mathematics at grade 12 level
(group A students) while the rest got merit or credit (group B students). Past experience show that
70% of group A students and 30% of group B students usually pass the course. A student is
chosen at random from this class and is found to have passed the class. Find the conditional
probability that this student is from group A.

4. Random variables and their probability distributions.

36. Refer to problem 15.

a. If X is the number of non-defective PCs in the selection, determine the probability distribution
and the cumulative distribution functions of X.
b. Portray the probability distribution of X by a graph and a probability histogram.

37. A contractor is submitting bids to 3 jobs, A, B, and C. The probabilities that she will win each
of the three jobs are P(A) = 0.5, P(B) = 0.8, and P(C) = 0.2, respectively . Assume events A, B,
and C are statistically independent. Let X be the number of jobs the contractor will win.
a. What are the possible values of X?
b. Compute the pmf and the cmf of X.
c. Determine P(X  2), P (0 < X  2)

38. A lecturer of Statistics tries to arrive at his office between 7:20 and 7:30 each morning.
Because of some events beyond his control, the actual arrival time is between 7:10 and 7:40 and
is described by the probability density function (pdf) f(x) = - ( x – 40 ) /450 if 10x  40; and
0 elsewhere (i.e. for x < 10 or for x > 40). Where X is the number of minutes after 7:00.
a. Verify that f(x) is a pdf.
b. Find the cdf.
c. Find the probability that the lecturer arrives between 7:20 and 7:30 on a given morning.

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39. The length of time required by students to complete a 1-hour exam is a random variable with
cx 2  x ,0  x  1
pdf given by f(x) = 
 0 , elsewhere
a. Find c
b. Find F(x) and use it to find F(-1), F(0), and F(1)
c. Find the probability that a student finishes in less than a half hour.

40. The cdf of the random variable X is given by F(x) = 1 – (1+ x)e-x for x >0 and 0 elsewhere.
Find P(X<2), P(1< X <3),P(X > 4) and the pdf of X

41. A water and sewerage firm has found that the daily consumption of water (in millions of
litres) is a random variable whose pdf is f(x) = x e-x/3/9 for x > 0 and 0 elsewhere. What are the
probabilities that on a given day (a) the water consumption in this city is no more than 6 million
litres; (b) the water supply is inadequate if the daily capacity of this city is 9 million litres?

42. If the joint pmf of X and Y is given by p(x, y)= c(x2 + y2) for x = -1,0,1,3; y = -1,2,3
a. Find the value of c
b. Find P(X ≤ 1,Y<2); P(X = 0,Y ≤ 2); P(X + Y >2)

43. Let X and Y denote the proportions of time, out of one workday, that employees I and II,
respectively, actually spend on performing their assigned tasks. The joint relative frequency
behaviour of X and Y is modelled by the density function f(x,y) = x + y ,0 ≤ x ≤1; 0 ≤ y ≤ 1 and
0 elsewhere. Find P(X< 1/2,Y>1/4) and P( X+Y ≤ 1).

44. Find the joint pdf of the two random variables X and Y whose joint cdf is given by
2 2
F(x,y) = (1  e  x )(1  e  y ) for x >0, y>0 and 0 elsewhere and determine P(1< X ≤ 2, 1< Y ≤ 2)

45. Find the joint pdf of the two random variables X and Y whose joint cdf is given by
F(x,y) = 1-e-x-e-y+e-x-y for x > 0 and y > 0 and determine P(X +Y >3)

46. Two textbooks are selected at random from a shelf that contains three statistics textbooks, two
mathematics textbooks, and three chemistry textbooks. (a) If X is the number of statistics texts
and Y the number of mathematics texts actually chosen, construct a table showing the values of
the joint pdf of X and Y; (b) find the marginal distribution of X; (c) the conditional probability
distribution of Y given X = 0.

47. Verify that f(x,y) = xy e-xe-y x > 0, y > 0 satisfies the conditions necessary to be a joint pdf for
the random variables X and Y. Find the marginal densities for X and Y. Are X and Y
independent?

48. If X is the proportion of persons who will respond to one of a mail questionnaire, Y is the
proportion of persons who will respond to another mail questionnaire, and the joint pdf of X and
Y is given by f(x,y) = 2(x + 4y)/5 for 0<x<1, 0<y<1 and 0 elsewhere find the probabilities that:

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a. At least 30 % will respond to the first mail questionnaire;

b. At most 50 % will respond to the second mail questionnaire given that there has been a 20%
response to the first mail questionnaire.

5. Mathematical expectation.

49. For problems 27, 28, 29, 30 and 33, compute E(X), V(X) and SD(X).

50. The random variable X has the following distribution for x = 1, 2, 3, 4.

x 1 2 3 4
p(x) 0.02 0.35 0.53 0.10

Calculate a. E(X), E(X2), E(5X - 3), 6E(X + 8), E(5X2 + 2)

b. Var(3X - 3), Var(4X), Var(3X + 2)

51. A contractor is interested in the total cost of a project on which he intends to bid. He estimates
that materials will cost $ 25,000 and that labour will be $ 900 per day. If the project takes X days
to complete, the total labour cost will be 900X dollars, and the total cost of the project (in dollars)
will be C = 25,000 + 900 X.
The contractor forms subjective probabilities (table below) of likely completion times for the
project.
a. Find the mean and variance for completion time X
b. Find the mean, variance, and standard deviation for total cost C.

Completion time ( Days) 10 11 12 13 14

Probability 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.1

52. The joint pdf of X and Y is given by f(x,y) = x3y3/16 0 ≤ x ≤ 2, 0 ≤ y ≤2. Find E(X), E(Y),
E(XY) and cov(X,Y).

53. Find the mgf of the random variable whose pdf is given by f(x) = e-x for x >0 and use it to find
an expression for  k .

54. Find the mgf of a random variable having a pmf p(x) = C(3,x)/8 for x = 0,1,2 and 3 and use it
to determine  1' and  2' .
55. Let the mgf m(t) = et/6 + 2e2t/6 + 3e3t/6. Find E(X) and V(X)

56. For the daily output of a certain industrial operation, let X 1 denote the amount of sales and X2
the costs, in thousands of dollars. Assume X1 has pdf f(x1) = 𝑥13 𝑒 −𝑥1 /6, x1 >0and X2 has pdf f(x)
=𝑒 −𝑥2/2 /2, x2 >0. The daily profit is given by Y = X1 - X2
a. Find E(Y) and V(Y) assuming X1 and X2 are independent
b. Would you anticipate that the daily profit would drop below zero very often? Why?

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57. Refer to problem 43. Employee I has a higher productivity rating than employee II, and a
measure of the total productivity of the two employees is 30X 1 + 25X2. Find the mean and the
variance of this measure of productivity.
58. A valuation surveyor has found that the assessed values of houses in each of the three medium
cost areas of the city are independent and normally distributed with expected values of $16,000,
$15,000 and $20,000 and standard deviations $3,500,$4,000 and $2,500. If the numbers of houses
in the three areas are 500, 400 and 200 houses, what is the probability that the total assessed value
of all houses in the three areas is (a) less than $22m? (b) greater than $24m?

59. In a construction project, the completion of the building requires the following activities:
excavation, foundation and superstructure. The completion times, in days, for these activities are
represented by the random variables X1, X2 and X3 and are assumed to be independent with
means 4, 8 and 18 days and variances 8, 16 and 36, respectively.
a. Assuming X1, X2 and X3are normally distributed, what is the probability that the total time
required to complete the building is less than 48 days? Is this event likely to happen? Explain.
b. Assuming X1, X2 and X3 have a gamma distribution, what is the probability that the total time
required to complete the building is exceeding 46.98 days? Is this event likely to happen?
Explain.

60. Recommended hourly wages (in dollars) for chemical engineers, statisticians and accountants
are random variables X1, X2 and X3 with means 30, 25 and 15, variances 60, 50 and 10 and
covariances cov (X1,X2 ) = 20, cov (X1, X3) = 30 and cov (X2 , X3) = 10. If firm 1 has 5 chemical
engineers, 4 statisticians and 3 accountants; firm 2 has 4 chemical engineers, 7 statisticians and 2
accountants and firm 3 has 3 chemical engineers, 2 statisticians and 9 accountants, determine the
mean vector and the matrix of variance-covariance of the vector of the sum of all hourly wages of
the employees in firm1, firm2 and firm 3.

6. Special probability distributions.

6.1. Binomial distribution.

61. A multiple choice examination has 10 questions, each having 5 possible answers only one of
which is correct. Suppose a student decides to answer the questions by guessing. Find:
a. The probability that he answers exactly 5 questions correctly.
b. The probability that he answers at most three questions correctly.
c. The probability that he answers at least 2 questions correctly.
d. Determine E(X) and V(X).

62. The probability that a third year student in chemical engineering program will clear all
courses is 0.84. Determine the probability of the following out of six students.
a. None will clear all courses.
b. At least five will clear all courses.
c. One will clear all courses.
d. At least one will clear all courses.

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M 270 TUTORIALS 2021/2022: INTRODUCTION TO PROBALITY AND STATISTICS I

63. In a statistics class, 40 % of the students favour a take-home exam over an in-class exam.
What is the probability that at least 3 students in a random sample of 20 students favour take-
home exam.

6.2. Geometric distribution and negative binomial distribution.

64. From past experience, a computer lab supervisor has found that the probability of being able
to log on to a computer at any time is 0.7. If X denotes the number of attempts that must be made
to gain access to the computer, find the probability that X  4. Based on this value, is this event
likely to happen? Find E (X) and V(X).

65. Refer to problem 62.

a. What is the probability that the first student that will clear all courses is found on the second
selection.
b. What is the probability that the 10th student selected will be the 5th to clear all courses.

66. Refer to problem 63. What is the probability that the first student favouring take-home exam
is found on the 7Th selection? What is the probability that the 4th student favouring take-home
exam is found on the 10th selection?

67. Suppose that 30% of the applicants for a chemical engineering job have advanced training in
chemical oriented computer applications (COCA). Applicants are interviewed sequentially and
are selected at random from the pool. Find the probability that (a) the first applicant having
advanced training in COCA is found on the 5th interview; (b) more that 2 applicants will have to
be interviewed before the first suitable prospect is obtained, (c) the first five applicants having
advanced training in COCA are found after 10 interviews.

68. Suppose that 40% of first year students have distinction in all grade 12 subjects. If X is the
number of students to be selected in order to get the 5th students with distinctions in all grade 12
subjects, find P(X= 12), P(X < 8), E(X) and V(X).

6.3. Hypergeometric distribution.

69. A group of 30 unionised workers of a firm contains 20 people who are in favour of a strike
and ten who are not. Determine the probability that a random sample of eight workers contains
five individuals who favour the strike and three who oppose.

70. Ten people apply for a job at the university. Six of the applicants have PhD degrees and the
remainder do not. If four of the applicants are randomly selected for the job, what is the
probability that exactly three have PhD degrees?

71. A distributor of mathematics computer software wants to obtain some customer feedback
concerning its newest package. Three thousand customers have purchased the package. Assume

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M 270 TUTORIALS 2021/2022: INTRODUCTION TO PROBALITY AND STATISTICS I

that 600 of these customers are dissatisfied with the product. Twenty customers are randomly
sampled and questioned about the package. Let X denote the number of dissatisfied customers
sampled.
a. Find the pmf of X, E(X), V(X) and P (X  3).
b. Using the binomial approximation, find E(X), V(X) and P(X  3).

6.4. Multinomial distribution.

72. Computer systems crash for many reasons, among them software failure, hardware failure,
operator error and system overloading. It is thought that 10 % of the crashes are due to software
failure, 5% to hardware failure, 25 % to operator error, 40 % to system overloading, and the rest
to other causes. Over an extended study period 50 crashes are observed and each is classified
according to its probable cause. What is the probability that 4 are due to software failure, 3 to
hardware failure, 14 to operator error, 22 to system overloading, and the rest to other causes ?Is
this event likely to happen ?

73. From past experience, a lecturer teaching statistics at the department of Statistics and
computer science has found that the chances of getting B+, B, C+,C, or D are 10% , 25% ,35%,
20% , and 10 %, respectively. If this year , 35 students are taking the course , what is the
probability of having 4 students with B+ , 9 students with B , 12 students with C+, 7 students
with C , and 3 students with D.

74. Among a large number of applicants for a position of a mathematician, 60 % have only a
bachelor degree in education, 30 % have a master degree, and 10 % have a PhD degree. If 5
applicants are selected and are to be interviewed, find the probability that at least one will have
completed a PhD degree. What assumptions are necessary for your answer to be valid?

6.5. Poisson distribution.

75. An average of five books per hour are returned to a library. Assume that the number of
returned books is poisson distributed.
a. What is the probability that less than four books will be returned in one hour?
b. What is the standard deviation of the number of books returned?

76. A textbook copy editor is reviewing a manuscript for grammatical errors. Let the random
variable X represent the number of grammatical errors made in a particular chapter. Assume
that the conditions of a Poisson distribution are satisfied with an average of ten grammatical
errors per chapter.
a. What is the probability that X is less than three?
b. What is the probability that X is greater than one?
c. What is the mean value of X?

77. The number of people entering a bank during any two -minute interval follows the poisson
distribution with mean  = 2. Find the probability of the following during a two-minute interval

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a. No one enters the bank.

b. At least two people enter the bank.

78. Customers arrive at a busy checkout counter at an average rate of 2.5 per minute. If the
distribution of arrivals is poisson, find the probability that in any given minute there will be 3 or
fewer arrivals.

79. The probability that a student taking statistics course will fall sick one hour before a test is
0.005. For a class of 200 students, determine the probability of less than 3 students falling sick
one hour before a test. What is the expected number of students falling sick one hour before the
test.

80. The probability of a person having an accident in a certain period of time is 0.0003. For a
population of 7500 people:
a. Find the probability of at least 3 people having an accident.
b. Determine the most probable number of people having an accident.

7. Special probability densities.

7.1. Normal distribution.

81. Let Z be the standard normal distribution random variable. Find

a. P( 0  Z  1.5 ), P( Z  1.82 ), P(Z  1.64) , P( Z  -1.54 ), P(Z  6.00 ), P( Z  5.50 ).
b. Find z such that : P (Z > z ) = 0.2297, P (Z > z ) = 0.0007364, P (Z < z ) = 0.9495, P ( Z < z )
= 09776

82. The lifetime of a disk drive head is normally distributed, with a mean of 1,000 hours, and a
standard deviation of 100 hours. Determine the probability for the following lifetime outcomes
for one drive unit
a. between 1,000 and 1,150 hours b. between 950 and 1,000 c. 930 or less d. longer than
1,250 hours

83. Of the students entering a mathematics school, 80 % eventually graduate. If we take a sample
of 100 new mathematics students, what is the probability that fewer than 75 eventually graduate?

84. A census report that 60 % of the country’s households have incomes below the poverty line.
Suppose that 1000 households are randomly selected. Find the probability that fewer than 200 of
these households are below the poverty line.

85. Suppose that 20 % of the applicants to the school of mathematics and statistics are women.
An admission committee reviews applications in groups of 100. Find the probability that the
number of women in the next group is:
a. less than or equal to 15; b. greater than to 25; c. exactly 27; d. between 18 and 26, inclusively;
e. less than 10; f. greater than 40.

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7.2. Gamma distribution.

86. A computer firm introduces a new home computer. Past experience shows that the random
variable X, the time of peak demand measured in months after its introduction, follows a gamma
distribution with a variance 36.
a. If the expected value is 18 months, find  and  .
b. Find P (X  7.01) ; P (X  28.87) ; P (17.34  X  31.53 )

87. From past experience, a statistician has found that the time X (in months) to complete
particular road construction activities can be modelled by the gamma distribution with parameters
= 3 and β=2.
a. Find E(X) and V(X).
b. Determine the pdf f(x) if the cdf is F(x) = e -2x (-2x2 -2x -1)
c. Use the cdf to compute P(1< X <2)
d. If the total cost (in dollars) associated with the completion of these activities is Y= 100,000 +
400,000 X, find E(Y) and V(Y).

Exponential distribution

88. A lecturer sees students during regular office hours. Time (in minutes) spent with students is a
continuous random variable following the exponential distribution with mean of 10 minutes.
a. Determine the pdf, the cdf, the mean and the variance of X.
b. Find the probability that a given student spends less than 20 minutes with the lecturer.

89. The lifetime (in hours) X of a certain electronic component is a random variable following an
exponential distribution with β =0.01. Determine E(X), V(X) and P(50 < X < 150)

7.3. Uniform and beta distributions.

90. The excess return X is a continuous random variable with pdf given by f(x) = 2 for –0.2  x 
0.3.
a. Find the cdf F(x)
b. Find P(0  X  0.2), P(-0.2  X  0.1), E(X) and V(X).

91. A consultant knows that it will cost him $ 10,000 to fulfil a particular contract. The contract is
to be put out for bids, and he believes that the lowest bid of all other bids (excluding his own), in
thousands of dollars, can be modelled by a continuous random variable X with pdf

1 / 12 ,8  x  20
f(x) = 
 0 , elsewhere

a. What is the probability that the lowest of the other bids will be less than the consultant’s cost
estimate of $ 10,000?

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M 270 TUTORIALS 2021/2022: INTRODUCTION TO PROBALITY AND STATISTICS I

b. If the consultant submits a bid of $ 12,000, what is the probability that he will secure the
contract?

92. An investor thinks that the price of a stock will increase tomorrow, and the increase, denoted
by X, will be some values between $ 0 and $ 3. Thus, the change in price, X, is a continuous
1 / 3 ,0  x  3
random variable with pdf f(x) = 
 0 , elsewhere
Find the following:
a. P(0.50  X  1.00) b. P(X  1.20) c. P(X  1) d. P(0.25  X  0.75)
e. The mean and variance of X.

Beta distribution

93. The relative humidity X, when measured at a certain location, has a pdf given by
f(x) = k x3(1 - x)2, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 and 0 elsewhere. Find the value of k that makes f(x) a pdf.

94. The percentage of impurities per batch in a certain chemical product is a random variable X
having the density function f(x) = 12 x2(1 - x), 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 and 0 elsewhere. A batch of more than
40 % impurities cannot be sold. What is the probability that a randomly selected batch cannot be
sold because of excessive impurities?

95. If the annual proportion of erroneous income tax returns filed with the ZRA can be looked
upon as a random variable having a beta distribution with = 2 and β = 9, what is the probability
that in any given year there will be fewer than 10% erroneous returns?

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