Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet
Department of Statistics
Probability Assignment
Course Name: Introduction to Probability
Course No: STA 0542 1251
1. A die is biased so that the probability of each side of the die turning up is proportional
to the number of dots on it. Find the probability of obtaining (a) a number less than
3 (b) a number less than or equal to 4 (c) an odd number (d) a number greater than
or equal to 4.
2. The probability that an American industry will locate in Shanghai, China is 0.7, the
probability that it will locate in Beijing, China is 0.4, and the probability that it will
locate in either Shanghai or Beijing is 0.8. What is the probability that the industry
will locate
i. in both cities?
ii. in neither city?
3. Interest centers around the life of an electronic component. Suppose it is known
that the probability that the component survives for more than 6000 hours is 0.42.
Suppose also that the probability that the component survives no longer than 4000
hours is 0.04.
i. What is the probability that the life of the component is less than or equal to
6000 hours?
ii. What is the probability that the life is greater than 4000 hours?
4. Three cards are drawn in succession, without replacement, from an ordinary deck of
playing cards. Find the probability that the event A1 ∩ A2 ∩ A3 occurs, where:
i. A1 is the event that the first card is a red ace,
ii. A2 is the event that the second card is a 10 or a jack, and
iii. A3 is the event that the third card is greater than 3 but less than 7.
5. For married couples living in a certain suburb, the probability that the husband will
vote on a bond referendum is 0.21, the probability that his wife will vote in the
referendum is 0.28, and the probability that both the husband and wife will vote is
0.15. What is the probability that
i. at least one member of a married couple will vote?
ii. a wife will vote, given that her husband will vote?
iii. a husband will vote, given that his wife does not vote?
6. The probability that a person visiting his dentist will have an X-ray is 0.6; the
probability that a person who has an X-ray will also have a cavity filled is 0.3; and
the probability that a person who has had an X-ray and a cavity filled will also have
a tooth extracted is 0.1. What is the probability that a person visiting his dentist,
will have an X-ray, a cavity filled, and a tooth extracted?
7. In a high school graduating class of 100 students, 54 studied mathematics, 69 studied
history, and 35 studied both mathematics and history. If one of these students is
selected at random, find the probability that
i. the student took mathematics or history;
ii. the student did not take either of these subjects;
iii. the student took history but not mathematics.
8. A random sample of 200 adults are classified by gender and their level of education
attained:
Gender Elementary Secondary College
Male 38 28 22
Female 45 50 17
If a person is picked at random from this group, find the probability that:
i. The person is a male given that the person has a secondary education.
ii. The person does not have a college degree given that the person is a female.
9. A manufacturer of a flu vaccine is concerned about the quality of its flu serum.
Batches of serum are processed by three different departments having rejection rates
of 0.10, 0.08, and 0.12, respectively. The inspections by the three departments are
sequential and independent.
i. What is the probability that a batch of serum survives the first departmental
inspection but is rejected by the second department?
ii. What is the probability that a batch of serum is rejected by the third depart-
ment?
10. Three girls A, B, and C share the household work. Since A is the oldest, she does
the job 40% of the time. B and C share the other 60% equally. The probability
that at least one dish will be broken when A is working is 0.02. For B and C the
probabilities are 0.03 and 0.02. The parents do not know who is washing the dishes,
but one morning they hear one break.
i. What is the probability that A was working?
ii. What is the probability that B was working?
11. A manufacturing firm employs three analytical plans for the design and development
of a particular product. For cost reasons, all three are used at varying times. In fact,
plans 1, 2, and 3 are used for 30%, 20%, and 50% of the products, respectively. The
defect rate is different for the three procedures as follows:
P (D|P1 ) = 0.01
P (D|P2 ) = 0.03
P (D|P3 ) = 0.02
where P (D|Pj ) is the probability of a defective product, given plan j. If a random
product was observed and found to be defective, which plan was most likely used and
thus responsible?
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12. Researchers are studying strategies to improve sleep quality. Three groups of subjects
are assigned to different sleep routines: C = no routine (control), R = relaxing routine
before bed, E = exercise routine before bed. Half of each routine group will drink
caffeine-free tea before bed (T ) and the other half will not drink tea (N T ). An
additional group will neither follow a routine nor drink tea, but will take a standard
sleep supplement (S).
Use:
• C = control, R = relaxing routine, E = exercise routine
• T = tea, N T = no tea
• S = supplement, F = no supplement
i. Show all elements of the sample space S.
ii. Let A be the set of subjects without supplements and B be the set of subjects
following the relaxing routine. List the elements of A ∪ B.
iii. List the elements of A ∩ B.
13. Verify if the following functions are probability functions or not:
2x − 1
f (x) = for x = 0, 1, 2, 3
8
x+1
f (x) = for x = 0, 1, 2, 3
16
14. An investment firm offers its customers municipal bonds that mature after varying
numbers of years. Given that the cumulative distribution function of T , the number
of years to maturity for a randomly selected bond, is,
0, t < 1
1
4, 1 ≤ t < 3
F (t) = 12 , 3 ≤ t < 5
3
, 5≤t<7
4
1, t ≥ 7
Find
i. P (T = 5);
ii. P (T > 3);
iii. P (1.4 < T < 6).
15. Let X denote the reaction time, in seconds, to a certain stimulus and Y denote the
temperature (◦ F) at which a certain reaction starts to take place. Suppose that two
random variables X and Y have the joint density
(
4xy, 0 < x < 1, 0 < y < 1
f (x, y) =
0, elsewhere.
Find
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1 1 1
i. P 0 ≤ X ≤ 2
and 4
≤Y ≤ 2
;
16. Given the following joint density function of X and Y :
(
6
(x + y 2 ), 0 < x < 1, 0 < y < 1
f (x, y) = 5
0, elsewhere
Find the following:
i. f (x|y)
ii. f (x|0.5)
17. Consider the following probability distribution of X and Y :
x+y
f (x, y) = , x = 1, 2, 3 and y = 1, 2
21
Obtain the marginal and conditional distributions of X and Y .
18. On a laboratory assignment, if the equipment is working, the density function of the
observed outcome, X, is
(
2(1 − x), 0 < x < 1,
f (x) =
0, otherwise.
Find the variance and standard deviation of X.
19. By investing in a particular stock, a person can make a profit in one year of $4000
with probability 0.3 or take a loss of $1000 with probability 0.7. What is this person’s
expected gain?
20. Let X be a random variable with the following probability distribution:
x -3 6 9
1 1 1
P (x) 6 2 3
Find
i. E(X)
ii. E(X 2 )
iii. E [(2X + 1)2 ]
21. Given the joint density function:
(
4xy, 0 < x < 1, 0<y<1
f (x, y) =
0, otherwise
Find
i. E(X)
ii. E(Y )
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iii. E(XY )
Are X and Y independent?
22. Let X and Y be discrete random variables with the following joint probability dis-
tribution:
Y \X 1 2 Total
1 1 1
0 6 3 2
1 1 1
1 4 4 2
5 7
Total 12 12
1
i. Find E(Y |X) for the table given above.
ii. For the table given above, find Var(X|Y = 1).
Dr. Nahid Sultana
Assistant Professor
Department of Statistics
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