NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER

(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)
NEGATIVE BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION , GEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTION & POISSON DISTRIBUTION

1 The probability that a person living in a certain city owns a dog is estimated to be 0.3. Find the probability that the tenth
person randomly interviewed in that city is the fifth one to own a dog.
2 Find the probability that a person flipping a coin gets
(a) the third head on the seventh flip;
(b) The first head on the fourth flip.
3 Three people toss a fair coin and the odd one pays for coffee. If the coins all turn up the same, they are tossed again. Find the
probability that fewer than 4 tosses are needed.
4 A scientist inoculates mice, one at a time, with a disease germ until he finds 2 that have contracted the disease. If the
probability of contracting the disease is 1/6, what is the probability that 8 mice are required?
5 The probability that a student pilot passes the written test for a private pilot’s license is 0.7. Find the probability that a given
student will pass the test
(a) on the third try;
(b) Before the fourth try.
6 Suppose the probability that any given person will believe a tale about the transgressions of a famous actress is 0.8. What is
the probability that
(a) The sixth person to hear this tale is the fourth one to believe it?
(b) The third person to hear this tale is the first one to believe it?
7 An inventory study determines that, on average, demands for a particular item at a warehouse are made 5 times per day.
What is the probability that on a given day this item is requested
(a) More than 5 times?
(b) Not at all?
8 A certain area of the eastern United States is, on average, hit by 6 hurricanes a year. Find the probability that in a given year
that area will be hit by
(a) fewer than 4 hurricanes.
(b) Anywhere from 6 to 8 hurricanes.
9 On average, 3 traffic accidents per month occur at a certain intersection. What is the probability that in any given month at
this intersection
(a) Exactly 5 accidents will occur?
(b) Fewer than 3 accidents will occur?
(c) At least 2 accidents will occur?
10 A restaurant chef prepares a tossed salad containing, on average, 5 vegetables. Find the probability that the salad contains
more than 5 vegetables
(a) on a given day
(b) on 3 of the next 4 days
(c) For the first time in April on April 5.
11 The probability of a successful optical alignment in the assembly of an optical data storage product is 0.8. Assume the trials
are independent.
(a) What is the probability that the first successful alignment requires exactly four trials?
(b) What is the probability that the first successful alignment requires at most four trials?
(c) What is the probability that the first successful alignment requires at least four trials?
12 The number of cracks in a section of interstate highway that are significant enough to require repair is assumed to follow a
Poisson distribution with a mean of two cracks per mile.
(a) What is the probability that there are no cracks that require repair in 5 miles of highway?
(b) What is the probability that at least one crack requires repair in mile of highway?
13 The probability that a person will die from a certain respiratory infection is 0.002. Find the probability that fewer than 5 of the
next 2000 so infected will die.
14 Suppose a life insurance company insures the lives of 5000 persons aged 42. If studies show the probability that any 42-years old
person will die in a given year to be 0.001, find the probability that the company will have to pay at least two claims during
a given year.

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)
 NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)
15 Suppose that, on average, 1 person in 1000 makes a numerical error in preparing his or her income tax return. If 10,000 forms
are selected at random and examined, find the probability that 6, 7, or 8 of the forms contain an error.
16 It is given that 30 per cent of electric bulbs manufactured by a company are defective. Find the probability that a sample of 100 bulbs
will contain
(i) No defective, and
(ii) Exactly one defective.
HYPERGEOMETRIC & MULTIVARIATE HYPERGEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTION
1 A homeowner plants 6 bulbs selected at random from a box containing 5 tulip bulbs and 4 daffodil bulbs. What is the
probability that he planted 2 daffodil bulbs and 4 tulip bulbs?
2 To avoid detection at customs, a traveler places 6 narcotic tablets in a bottle containing 9 vitamin tablets that are similar in
appearance. If the customs official selects 3 of the tablets at random for analysis, what is the probability that the traveler will
be arrested for illegal possession of narcotics?
3 From a lot of 10 missiles, 4 are selected at random and fired. If the lot contains 3 defective missiles that will not fire, what is
the probability that
(a) All 4 will fire?
(b) At most 2 will not fire?
4 What is the probability that a waitress will refuse to serve alcoholic beverages to only 2 minors if she randomly checks the IDs
of 5 among 9 students, 4 of whom are minors?
5 A company is interested in evaluating its current inspection procedure for shipments of 50 identical items. The procedure is to
take a sample of 5 and pass the shipment if no more than 2 are found to be defective. What proportion of shipments with
20% defectives will be accepted?
6 A foreign student club lists as its members 2 Canadians, 3 Japanese, 5 Italians, and 2 Germans. If a committee of 4 is selected
at random, find the probability that
(a) All nationalities are represented.
(b) All nationalities except Italian are represented.
7 An urn contains 3 green balls, 2 blue balls, and 4 red balls. In a random sample of 5 balls, find the probability that both blue
balls and at least 1 red ball are selected.
NORMAL DISTRIBUTION
1 Given a standard normal distribution, find the area under the curve that lies
(a) to the left of z = −1.39;
(b) to the right of z = 1.96;
(c) between z = −2.16 and z = −0.65;
(d) to the left of z = 1.43;
(e) to the right of z = −0.89;
(f) Between z = −0.48 and z = 1.74.
2 Given a standard normal distribution, find the
value of k such that
(a) P(Z > k) = 0.2946;
(b) P(Z < k) = 0.0427;
(c) P (−0.93 < Z < k) = 0.7235.
3 Given the normally distributed variable X with mean 18 and standard deviation 2.5, find
(a) P(X <15);
(b) the value of k such that P(X <k) = 0.2236;
(c) the value of k such that P(X >k) = 0.1814;
(d) P (17 < X < 21).
4 The speed of a file transfer from a server on campus to a personal computer at a student’s home on a weekday evening is
normally distributed with a mean of 60 kilobits per second and a standard deviation of 4 kilobits per second.
(a) What is the probability that the file will transfer at a speed of 70 kilobits per second or more?
(b) What is the probability that the file will transfer at a speed of less than 58 kilobits per second?
5 The line width of for semiconductor manufacturing is assumed to be normally distributed with a mean of 0.5 micrometer
Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)
(Mathematics Department)
 NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)
and a standard deviation of 0.05 micrometer.
(a) What is the probability that a line width is greater than 0.62 micrometer?
(b) What is the probability that a line width is between 0.47 and 0.63 micrometer?
6 An electrical firm manufactures light bulbs that have a life, before burn-out, that is normally distributed with mean equal to
800 hours and a standard deviation of 40 hours. Find the probability that a bulb burns between 778 and 834 hours.
7 A certain machine makes electrical resistors having a mean resistance of 40 ohms and a standard deviation of 2 ohms.
Assuming that the resistance follows a normal distribution and can be measured to any degree of accuracy, what percentage
of resistors will have a resistance exceeding 43 ohms?
(b) Find the percentage of resistances exceeding 43 ohms if resistance is measured to the nearest ohm.
8 The elongation of a steel bar under a particular load has been established to be normally distributed with a mean of 0.05 inch
and σ = 0.01 inch. Find the probability that the elongation is
(a) above 0.1 inch;
(b) below 0.04 inch;
(c) Between 0.025 and 0.065 inch.
9 In a human factor experimental project, it has been determined that the reaction time of a pilot to a visual stimulus is
normally distributed with a mean of 1/2 second and standard deviation of 2/5 second.
(a) What is the probability that a reaction from the pilot takes more than 0.3 second?
(b) What reaction time is that which is exceeded 95% of the time?

10 A research scientist reports that mice will live an average of 40 months when their diets are sharply restricted and then
enriched with vitamins and proteins. Assuming that the lifetimes of such mice are normally distributed with a standard
deviation of 6.3 months, find the probability that a given mouse will live
(a) more than 32 months;
(b) less than 28 months;
(c) Between 37 and 49 months.
11 A multiple-choice quiz has 200 questions, each with 4 possible answers of which only 1 is correct. What is the probability that
sheer guesswork yields from 25 to 30 correct answers for the 80 of the 200 problems about which the student has no
knowledge?
12 A process yields 10% defective items. If 100 items are randomly selected from the process, what is the probability that the
number of defectives
(a) Exceeds 13?
(b) Is less than 8?
13 The probability that a patient recovers from a delicate heart operation is 0.9. Of the next 100 patients having this operation,
what is the probability that
(a) Between 84 and 95 inclusive survive?
(b) Fewer than 86 survive?

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)
 NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)
14 The amount of time consumed by an individual at a bank ATM is found to be normally distributed with mean
μ = 130 seconds and standard deviation σ = 45 seconds.
(a) What is the probability that a randomly selected individual will consume less than 100 seconds at the ATM?
(b) What is the probability that a randomly selected individual will spend between 2 to 3 minutes at the ATM?
(c) Within what length of time do 20 per cent of individuals complete their job at the ATM?
(d) What is the least amount of time required for individuals with top 5 per cent of required time?
15 A company produces component parts for an [Link] specifications suggest that 95% of items meet specifications. The
parts are shipped to customers in lots of 100.
(a) What is the probability that more than 2 items in a given lot will be defective?
(b) What is the probability that more than 10 items in a lot will be defective?
EXPONENTIAL DISTRIBUTION
1 The length of time for one individual to be served at a cafeteria is a random variable having an exponential distribution with a
mean of 4 minutes. What is the probability that a person is served in less than 3 minutes on at least 4 of the next 6 days?
2 Computer response time is an important application of the gamma and exponential distributions. Suppose that a study of a
certain computer system reveals that the response time, in seconds, has an exponential distribution with a mean of 3
seconds. What is the probability that response time exceeds 5 seconds?
3 The exponential distribution is frequently applied to the waiting times between successes in a Poisson process. If the number
of calls received per hour by a telephone answering service is a Poisson random variable with parameter λ = 6, we know that
the time, in hours, between successive calls has an exponential distribution with parameter β =1/6. What is the probability of
waiting more than 15 minutes between any two successive calls?

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)
NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)
NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)
NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)
NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
SE(EE) BATCH 2023-24 SPRING SEMESTER
(HANDOUT #3) PROBABILITY &STATISTICS (MT-331)

Shumaila Usman (Assistant professor)

(Mathematics Department)