Tutorial 4
1. The probability mass function (PMF) for random variable X is given below.
X −10 −5 0 5 10
P( X=x) 0.07 k 0.26 0.38 0.17
Find the value of k and then construct the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of X.
2. The probability mass function (PMF) for random variable X is given below.
X 0.25 0.7 1.55 2.3 2.9 3.15 3.72 4.05
P( X=x) 0. 1 0.05 0. 15 0. 18 0.22 0. 13 0.08 0.09
a) What is the probability that X is less than 3?
b) What is the probability that X is at least 1?
c) What is the probability that X is smaller than 3,72 but at least 1,55?
3. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) for random variable Y is given below.
X 0.25 0.7 1.55 2.3 2.9 3.15 3.72 4.05
F (X= x) 0.1 0. 15 0. 3 0. 48 0. 7 0. 8 3 0. 91 1
a) What is the probability that X is less than 3?
b) What is the probability that X is at least 1?
c) What is the probability that X is smaller than 3,72 but at least 1,55?
d) What is the probability that X equals 2,3?
4. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) for random variable X is shown below.
Construct the probability mass function (PMF) for X.
X 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
F (x) 0.05 0.19 0.37 0.59 0.81 0.88 1
5. Suppose a die is loaded in such a way that the probability of a number X coming up is
proportional to the square of the number i.e. P( X=x)=k x 2 for x=1 , 2 ,3 , 4 ,5 , 6 . Find
the value of k and then calculate the mean and standard deviation of X .
6. You are playing a game with one of your friends. Your friend gives you R5 when you roll
a 1 or a 2 on a balanced die. How much must you pay your friend when you roll a 3, 4, 5
or 6 if this is a fair game?
7. The probability distribution of X, the number of cylinders to be tuned up in the engines of
cars at a certain service station is shown in the probability mass function below.
X 2 4 6
P( X=x) 0.5 0.35 0.15
It costs R300 to tune up each cylinder. What is the expected cylinder tune up cost?
8. A union wage negotiator feels that the probabilities are 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.1 that the union
members will get a raise of R1,50 per hour, R1,00 per hour, 50c per hour and no raise at
all (respectively). What is the expected raise for the union members?
9. An importer is offered a shipment of machine tools for R155,000. The probabilities that
the importer will be able to sell the shipment for R190000, R185000 or R167000 are 0.35,
0.48 and 0.17 respectively. What is the importer’s expected profit?
10. A tele-sales centre has found that 65% of the people they phone hang up before finding
out what products are being sold. The salesmen call these “hang-ups”. Sixty calls were
made in the last 30 minutes. What Excel command/formula/Table can be used to calculate
is the following probability:
a) What is the probability that two thirds of the calls were hang-ups?
b) What is the probability that 35 to 38 of the calls were hang-ups?
c) It is estimated that the tele-sales centre makes a loss of R15 for every hang-up.
What is the expected loss for the sales made in the last 30 minutes?
d) What is the distribution of the random variable that gives the number of calls that
are not hang-ups?
11. An insurance company receives, on average, 5 claims in any two-hour period of a
working day. There are eight hours in a working day. What Excel
command/formula/Table can be used to calculate is the following probability
a) What is the probability that the insurance company receives 8 claims in the last two
hours of a working day?
b) What is the probability that the insurance company receives 4 to 8 claims in the
next two-hour period?
c) What is the probability that the insurance company receives more than 2 claims in
the next hour?
d) What is the probability that the insurance company receives only 9 claims in the
next 4 hours?
e) How many claims can the insurance company expect in a 7-day week?
12. A doctor has found that 75% of his consultations are with people with flu (influenza)
symptoms. The doctor has 14 consultations booked for the day.
a) What is the probability that more than 8, but at most 12, of the consultations will be
with people who have flu symptoms?
b) What Excel command/formula can be used to calculate the probability that at least
half of the consultations will be for people with flu symptoms?
c) The doctor can expect k of the consultations to be with people with flu symptoms.
What is the value of k?
d) What is the distribution of the random variable that gives the number of consultations
that are with people who do not have flu symptoms?
e) What Excel command/formula can be used to calculate the probability that the doctor
has at most 3 consultations with people who do not have flu symptoms?
13. An old woman takes two types of pills every day. Type-1 she takes in the morning and the
evening. Type-2 she takes only in the morning as taking it more than once a day makes
her ill. This morning the woman opened a bottle of 10 Type-1 pills and a bottle of 6 Type-
2 pills. She accidentally dropped both the bottles before taking the pills so all the pills got
mixed up. The old woman has poor eyesight so she couldn’t tell the difference between
the two types of pills. She decided to randomly pick two pills to take this morning.
a) What is the probability that the woman will get ill because she picked two of the Type-2
pills?
b) What is the probability that the woman took the correct medication?
d) Let 𝑋 be the random variable that counts the number of Type-2 pills that the woman
c) What is the probability that the woman took the correct medication?
took this morning. Using the answers in questions 15, 16 and 17, construct the pdf of 𝑋.
e) What type of distribution does 𝑋 follow?
14. A shopkeeper hires out two models of vacuum cleaners. The demand for the Model-A
vacuum cleaners is, on average, 5 per day and the demand for the Model-B vacuum
cleaners is, on average, 2 per day.
a) What is the probability that the shopkeeper hires out at most 3 Model-A vacuum
cleaners in a day?
b) If the Model-B vacuum cleaner is hired out for R100 per day, how much income can the
shopkeeper expect to earn from hiring out Model-B vacuum cleaners in a 5-day week?
c) In total, how many vacuums can the shopkeeper expect to hire out in a 5-day week?
15. Sunshine Fruit sells bags containing 12 apples. On examining the contents of various bags
over time, it is found that 25% of the apples in each bag are grade-3 apples with the
remaining apples being grade-2. Five (5) apples are randomly selected from a bag.
a) Sunshine Fruit sells bags containing 12 apples. On examining the contents of various
bags over time, it is found that 25% of the apples in each bag are grade-3 apples with the
remaining apples being grade-2. Five (5) apples are randomly selected from a bag.
b) What is the probability that at most 1 grade-3 apple is picked?