BUSINESS STATISTICS
Problems on Poisson Distribution
1. Two percent of a given lot of manufactured parts are defective. Find the probability that
in a sample of 100 items, (i) none will be defective (ii) exactly two will be defective.
2. It is known from past experience that in a certain plant, there are on an average, 4
industrila accidents per year. Find the probability that in a given year, there will be less
than 4 accidents. Assume Poisson Distribution (e^-4 = 0.0183).
3. Suppose that a manufactured product has 2 defects per unit of product inspected.
Using Poisson Distribution, calculate the probabilities of finding a product without any
defect, with 3 defects and 4 defects. Given (e^-2 = 0.135).
4. A book contains 100 misprints distributed randomly throughout its 100 pages. Find the
probability that a page observed at random contains atleast two misprints.
5. A local electrical appliances shop has found from experience that the demand for tube
lights is distributed as Poisson with a mean of 4 tube lights per week. If the shop keeps
6 tubes during a particular week, what is the probability that demand will exceed supply
during that week ? (e^-4 = 0.0183).
6. Assuming that the probability of a fatal accident in a factory during the year is 1/1200,
calculate the probability that in a factory employing 300 workers, there will be atleast
two fatal accidents in a year. (e^0.25 = 0.7788).
7. In a company manufacturing toys, it is found that 1 in 500 is defective. Find the
probability that there will be at most two defectives in a sample of 2,000 units. (Given
e^-4 = 0.0183).
8. If the chance of being killed by flood during a year is 1/3000, use Poisson distribution to
calculate the probability that out of 3,000 persons living in a village, atleast one would
die in flood in a year.
9. The standard deviation of a Poisson Distribution is 2. Find the probability that X = 3.
(Given e^-4 = 0.0183).
10. The mean of a Poisson Distribution is 2.25. Find the other constants of the distribution.
11. The following table shows the number of customers returning the products in a marketing
territory. The data is for 100 stores.
No. Of Returns : 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
No. Of Stores : 4 14 23 23 18 9 9
Fit a Poisson Distribution.
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12. Fit a Poisson Distribution to the following data and calculate theoretical frequencies :
Deaths : 0 1 2 3 4
Frequency : 122 60 15 2 1
13. In Delhi, with 100 municipal wards, each having approximately the same population,
the distribution of typhoid cases in 1987 was as follows :
No. Of Cases : 0 1 2 3 4
No. Of Wards : 63 28 6 2 1
