SMA3140 TUTORIAL

(1) The following table shows the distribution of marks of Economics examination for a
class of 80 students:
marks 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89
no. of students 15 10 24 13 12 6
Compute

(i) the mean and median of the marks

(ii) the interquartile range of the marks
(iii) the skewness of the marks
(iv) Using the above masures, briefly describe the data

(2) A box has seven green, three red and eight blue balls. If three balls are drawn at
random, determine the probability that

(i) all three balls are blue

(ii) two balls are green and one is blue
(iii) at least one ball is white
(iv) one of each colour is drawn

(3) In a high school graduating class of 100 students, 54 studied Mathematics, 67 studied
Chemistry and 32 studied both Mathematics and Chemistry. If one of the students
is selected at random, what is the probability that that the student

(i) did not take either of these subjects?

(ii) took Chemistry but not Mathematics

(4) In a population of 11 year old children the prevalence of hay fever and eczema has
been studied. The probability that a randomly chosen child from the population has
eczema is 0.04, the probability that a randomly chosen child from the population has
hay fever is 0.07 and the probability that a randomly selected child has both eczema
and hay fever is 0.009.

(i) What is the probability that a child selected at random has neither eczema nor
hay fever?

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 (ii) Among the children that do not have eczema in the population, we randomly
select one child. What is the probability that this child does have hay fever?
(iii) In the target population, is having eczema independent of having hay fever?

(5) Two fair four-sided dice are rolled and it is assumed that the two rolls are independent
of each other.

(i) What is the sample space for this experiment?

(ii) Let Z be the sum of the numbers of the faces that show up is recorded. Find
the probability distribution of Z.

(6) Let E and D be two events with Pr(E) = 0.25, Pr(D) = 0.45, and Pr(E ∩ D) = 0.1.
What is Pr (E c | D)?

(7) If Aand B are independent events, Show that

(i) Ac and B
(ii) Ac and B c

are independent.

(8) Suppose A and B are are events defined on a sample space such that Pr(A) = 13 ,
1 2
Pr(B) = 5
and Pr(A | B) + Pr(B | A) = 3
Find Pr(A ∪ B)

(9) A certain deadly disease occurs in 1% of the population. A blood test for this disease
has a 2% false positive rate, and a 5% false negative rate.

(i) If an individual takes the blood test and test is positive, how certain is it that
he actually has the disease?
(ii) If an individual takes the blood test and test is negative, how certain is it that
he does not have the disease?

(10) In a railway reservation office, two clerks are engaged in checking reservations forms.
On average, the first clerk Mr. X checks 55 percent of the forms, while the second
clerk Mr. Y checks the rest. While Mr. X has an error rate of 0.03, that of Mr.
Y is 0.02. A reservation form is selected at random from the total number of forms
checked during a day and is discovered to have an error. Find the probability that it
was checked by Mr. Y.

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(11) An economist believes that during periods of high economic growth, the Kenya shilling
appreciates with probability 0.8; in periods of moderate economic growth, the shilling
appreciates with probability 0.4 and during slow economic growth, the shilling ap-
preciates with probability 0.1. During any period of time, the probability of high
economic growth is 0.35; the probability of moderate economic growth is 0.55 and
probability of slow economic growth is 0.2. Given that the shilling has appreciated
during the present period, what is the probability that it is a period of high economic
growth?

(12) A discrete random variable Y has probability distribution function


k(1 − y)2 y = −1, 0, 2, 3
Pr(Y = y) =
0 otherwise

Find

(i) the value of k

(ii) Var[4 − 6Y ]

(13) Let X be a random variable with probability density function


e−x x > 0
f (x) =
0 otherwise

Find

(i) Pr[2 ≤ X ≤ 5]
(ii) Pr[X > 0.5 | X < 1.5]

(14) The probability density function of a random variable W is


c(1 − w2 ) 0 ≤ w ≤ 1
g(w) =
0 otherwise
1 4

Find the value of c and hence Pr 5
≤W ≤ 5

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(15) The probability that a manufactured product is defective is 0.1. Suppose that fifteen
products are selected at random: what is the probability that

(i) at most four products are defective?

(ii) at least seven but no more than twelve products are not defective? w

(16) The result of an experiment is a discrete random variable X which has a binomial
distribution with mean 3.6 and standard deviation 1.2. What value is X most likely
to take on?

(17) A biased coin is such that a head is thrice as likely to show up as a tail when it is
tossed and face that shows up is observed. If this coin is tossed ten times, what is
the probability that a head shows up seven times?

(18) From past experience it is known that 15% of accounts in a large accounting popula-
tion are in [Link] is the probability that the first account in error occurs in the
first six accounts audited?

(19) Baker practices shots at goal. For each shot the probability of him scoring a goal is
0.3. Each shot at goal is independent of other shots.
Find the probability that

(i) he scores the first goal at fifth shot?

(ii) he scores the first goal before the fourth shot?

(20) Suppose that the number of customers arriving each hour at the only checkout counter
in a local pharmacy is approximately Poisson distributed with expected arrival rate
of ten customers per hour.
Find the probability that

(i) at least two customers arrive at this checkout counter in any given half-hour
period.
(ii) a total of three customers arrive during two independent quarter hour time
periods.

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(21) A secretary in a certain law firm sends an average of 3 emails per hour. What is the
probability that

(i) she does not send any email in a given hour?

(ii) she sends between eight to twelve emails in the first four hours on her reporting
to work?

(22) The time a mobile conversation takes follows a exponential distribution with mean
of three minutes. What is the probability that any randomly selected conversation
takes more than five minutes?

(23) On the average, a certain computer part lasts ten years. The length of time the
computer part lasts is exponentially distributed.

(i) What is the probability that a computer part lasts more than 7 years?
(ii) Eighty percent of computer parts last how long at most? (hint assume times are
ranked in ascending order)
(iii) What is the probability that a computer part lasts between nine and 11 years?

(24) The thickness X(in microns) of a protective coating applied to a conductor designed
to work in corrosive conditions follows a uniform distribution with a mean of 30
and standard deviation of √20 . Find the probability that the coating is less than 35
12
microns thick.

(25) Most graduate schools of business require applicants for admission to take the Grad-
uate Management Admission Council’s GMAT examination. Scores on the GMAT
are roughly normally distributed with a mean of 527 and a standard deviation of 112.

(i) What is the probability of an individual scoring above 500 on the GMAT?
(ii) How high must an individual score on the GMAT in order to score in the highest
5%?

(26) It was observed that in a group of 800 adults aged 60 years and above, the mean
daily calcium intake was 715 mg with a standard deviation of 85mg. If the calcium
intake is approximately normally distributed,

(i) Find the probability that a randomly selected individual from that group will
have calcium intake between 540 and 800mg

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(ii) How many individuals drawn from that group will have calcium intake of at
most 650mg?