KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MATERIALS AND METALLURGICAL
ENGINEERING
STAT 253: Probability and Statistics
Tutorial 3
1. The length of stay at a hospital emergency department is the sum of the waiting and service
times. Let X denote the proportion of time spent waiting and assume a beta distribution
with 10 and 1 . Determine the following:
(a) P X 0.9
(b) P X 0.5
(c) Mean and variance
2. Assume that the number of asbestos particles in a squared meter of dust on a surface follows
a Poisson distribution with a mean of 1000. If a squared meter of dust is analyzed, using
normal approximation to Poisson, what is the probability that 950 or fewer particles are
found?
3. An engineer recorded the time, to the nearest minute, spent in producing a particular
product by a group of engineering students. The times were summarized in a grouped
frequency distribution and represented by a histogram. The first class in the grouped
frequency distribution was 10 – 19 and its associated frequency was eight students. On the
histogram the height of the rectangle representing the class was 2.4 cm and the width was
2 cm. the total area under the histogram was 53.4 cm2. Find the number of children in the
class.
4. Suppose that the time to failure (in hours) of fans in a personal computer can be modeled
by an exponential distribution with 0.00003
(a) What proportion of the fans will last at least 10,000 hours?
(b) What proportion of the fans will last at most 7000 hours?
5. A European standard value for a low-emission window glazing uses 0.59 as the proportion
of solar energy that enters a room. Suppose that the distribution of the proportion of solar
energy that enters a room is a beta random variable.
(a) Calculate the mode, mean, and variance of the distribution for 3 and 1.4
(b) Calculate the mode, mean, and variance of the distribution for 10 and 6.25
(c) Comment on the difference in dispersion in the distribution from parts (a) and (b).
6. James plays a game in which a fair six-sided die is thrown once. If the score is 1, 2 or 3,
James loses £10. If the score is 4 or 5, James wins £x. If the score is 6, James wins £2x.
2
i. Show that the expectation of James profit is £ x 5
3
ii. Calculate the value of x for which, on average, James profit is zero.
iii. Given that x 12, calculate the variance of James profit in a single game.
7. The heights of piston rods produced by a manufacturer follow a normal distribution with
mean 𝜇� and standard deviation 6 m. It is known that 4.78% of the pistons have heights
greater than 82 m. Find the value of the mean, 𝜇�.
2 1
8. In a certain selection of flower seeds have been treated to improve germination and
3 3
have been left untreated. The seed which been treated have a probability of germination of
0.8, whereas the untreated seeds have a probability of germination of 0.5.
i. find the probability that a seed, selected at randon, will germinate
ii. find the probability that a seed selected at random had been treated, given that it
had germinated
9. Given that N ~ N 18, 10.
a) Find P X 22
b) Find P X 22
c) Find P10 X 20
d) Find P X 15
e) Find P X 15
10. The time between calls to a corporate office is exponentially distributed with a mean of
10 minutes.
(a) What is the probability that there are more than three calls in one-half hour?
(b) What is the probability that there are no calls within one half hour?
(c) Determine x such that the probability that there are no calls within x hours is 0.01.
(d) What is the probability that there are no calls within a two hour interval?
(e) If four nonoverlapping one-half-hour intervals are selected, what is the probability
that none of these intervals contains any call?
(f) Explain the relationship between the results in part (a) and (b).
11. In the collection of metallic rod parts of an engine using robots, it is found that 20% have
heights greater than 36.3cm and 67% have heights greater than 29.9 cm. Suppose the
heights are normally distributed in this collection. Find the mean and the standard deviation
of the heights of metallic rod collection procedure.
12. The time between arrivals of customers at an automatic teller machine is an exponential
random variable with a mean of five minutes.
(a) What is the probability that more than three customers arrive in 10 minutes?
(b) What is the probability that the time until the fifth customer arrives is less than 15
minutes?