Department of Mathematical Sciences
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Jais
Statistical Methods & Data Analysis (MA231)
Tutorial Set 1 January, 2026 Instructors: CK+DB+PD
■ Note: Ā and Ac denotes the complement of A in the sample space.
1. Using the axioms of probability, prove the following results:
a) For any event A, P (Ac ) = 1 − P (A).
b) The probability of the empty set is zero, i.e., P (∅) = 0.
c) For any event A, P (A) ≤ 1.
d) For any events A and B, P (A − B) = P (A) − P (A ∩ B).
e) If A ⊂ B, then P (A) ≤ P (B).
2. A foundry ships a lot of 20 engine blocks of which five contain internal flaws. The purchaser
will select three blocks at random and test them for hardness. The lot will be accepted if
no flaws are found. What is the probability that this lot will be accepted?
3. In a presidential election, there are four candidates. Call them A, B, C, and D. Based on
our polling analysis, we estimate that A has a 20 percent chance of winning the election,
while B has a 40 percent chance of winning. What is the probability that A or B win the
election?
4. A chemist analyzes seawater samples for two heavy metals: lead and mercury. Past expe-
rience indicates that 38% of the samples taken from near the mouth of a river on which
numerous industrial plants are located contain toxic levels of lead or mercury: 32% contain
toxic levels of lead, and 16% contain toxic levels of mercury. What is the probability that a
randomly selected sample will contain toxic levels of lead only?
5. A [Link]. student of RGIPT applies for a job in two companies X and Y. The probability
of her being selected in company X is 0.7 and being rejected at Y is 0.5. The probability of
at least one of her applications being rejected is 0.6. What is the probability that she will
be selected in at least one of the companies?
6. Three newspapers A, B and C are published in a certain city. It is estimated from a survey
that of the adult population: 20% read A, 16% read B, 14% read C, 8% read both A & B,
5% read both A & C, 4% read both B & C, 2% read all three. Find what percentage read
at least one of the papers.
7. 60% of the employees of the XYZ Corporation are college graduates. Of these, 10% are in
sales. Of the employees who didn’t graduate from college, 80% are in sales. What is the
probability that an employee selected at random
a) is in sales? b) is neither in sales nor a college graduate?
8. If A and B are two independent events then show that
a) A and B̄ b) Ā and B c) Ā and B̄
are also independent.
9. Two urns contain respectively 2 white & 1 black balls, and 1 white & 5 black ball. One ball
is transferred from the 1st to the 2nd urn, and then a ball is drawn from the 2nd urn. What
is the probability that the ball drawn is white?
10. Box I contains 3 red and 2 blue marbles while Box II contains 2 red and 8 blue marbles. A
fair coin is tossed. If the coin turns up heads, a marble is chosen from Box I; if it turns up
tails, a marble is chosen from Box II. Find the probability that a red marble is chosen.
11. A speaks truth 4 out of 5 times. A die is tossed. He reports that there is a six. What is the
chance that actually there were six?
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