Practice Problems Set
PTSP: EC1204
Q1. In a single throw of two fair dice, what is the probability of obtaining a sum at least
10?
Q2. A telephone call occurs at random in the interval (0, T ). This means that the proba-
bility that it will occur in the interval 0 ≤ t ≤ t0 equals t0 /T .
The outcomes of this experiment are all points in the interval (0, T ). Find the proba-
bility that the call will occur in the interval (t1 , t2 ), where 0 ≤ t1 < t2 ≤ T .
Q3. A box contains m white balls and n black balls. Balls are drawn at random, one at a
time, without replacement. Find the probability of encountering a white ball on the
kth draw.
Q4. A box contains white and black balls. When two balls are drawn without replacement,
suppose the probability that both are white is 31 .
(a) Find the smallest number of balls in the box.
(b) How small can the total number of balls be if the number of black balls is even?
Q5. We have four boxes. Box 1 contains 2000 components of which 5% are defective. Box 2
contains 500 components of which 40% are defective. Boxes 3 and 4 each contain 1000
components of which 10% are defective. We select at random one of the boxes and
then remove at random a single component.
(a) What is the probability that the selected component is defective?
(b) We examine the selected component and we find it defective. On the basis of this
evidence, we want to detemine the probability that it came from box 2.
Q6. Three switches connected in parallel operate independently. Each switch remains closed
with probability p.
Figure 1:
1
(a) Find the probability of receiving an input signal at the output.
(b) Find the probability that switch S1 is open given that an input signal is received
at the output.
Q7. In a box there are 100 resistors having resistance and tolerance as shown in Table 1.
Let a resistor be selected at random from the box and assume each resistor has the
same likelihood of being chosen.
Define the following events:
• A: drawing a 47 Ω resistor,
• B: drawing a resistor with 5% tolerance,
• C: drawing a 100 Ω resistor.
Using the data in the table, determine the applicable probabilities of these events. Also
compute all the joint and conditional probabilities based on the given data.
Table 1: Numbers of resistors in a box having given resistance and
tolerance
Resistance (Ω) Tolerance Total
5% 10%
22 10 14 24
47 28 16 44
100 24 8 32
Total 62 38 100
Q8. A student takes a commuter Yaari to get to the department’s campus and to class.
The probability that the student will arrive at class on time is 0.95 provided the Yaari
is on time. If the Yaari is known to be on schedule 70% of the time, find the probability
that the student will be on time to class.
Q9. A man is known to speak the truth 3 out of 4 times. He throws a die and reports that
it is a six. Find the probability that it is actually a six.
Q10. A binary symmetric channel is shown below:
0.9
P (B1 ) = 0.6 B1 A1
0.1
0.1
P (B2 ) = 0.4 B2 A2
0.9
The source emits symbols B1 and B2 with probabilities
P (B1 ) = 0.6, P (B2 ) = 0.4.
2
The conditional probabilities of the channel are given as:
P (A1 | B1 ) = 0.9, P (A2 | B1 ) = 0.1,
P (A1 | B2 ) = 0.1, P (A2 | B2 ) = 0.9.
(i) Find the probability P (A1 ).
(ii) Find the probability P (A2 ).
(iii) Find the conditional probability P (B1 | A1 ).
(iv) Find the conditional probability P (B2 | A2 ).
(v) Find the conditional probability P (B1 | A2 ).
(vi) Find the conditional probability P (B2 | A1 ).
Q11. A submarine attempts to sink an aircraft carrier. It will be successful only if two
or more torpedoes hit the carrier. If the submarine fires three torpedoes and the
probability of a hit is 0.4 for each torpedo, find the probability that the carrier will be
sunk.
Q12. A random variable X has the distribution function
12
X n2
FX (x) = u(x − n),
n=1
650
where u(·) denotes the unit step function. Find the following probabilities:
(i) P (−∞ < X ≤ 6.5),
(ii) P (X > 4),
(iii) P (6 < X ≤ 9).
Q13. A random variable X has the density function
1
fX (x) = u(x) e−x/2 ,
2
where u(·) denotes the unit step function. Evaluate the probabilities of the following
events:
A = {1 < X ≤ 3}, B = {X ≤ 2.5}, and C = A ∩ B.
Q14. A continuous random variable X has a probability density function
fX (x) = 3x2 , 0 ≤ x ≤ 1.
Find the constants a and b such that:
(i) P (X ≤ a) = P (X ≥ a),
(ii) P (X > b) = 0.05.
3
Q15. A random variable X is defined over the interval (0, 1). Find the conditional cumulative
distribution function (CDF) of X given that X < 12 . The distribution function of X is
given by
0, x < 0,
FX (x) = x, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1,
1, x > 1.
Q16. Assume that automobile arrivals at a gasoline station are Poisson and occur at an
average rate of 50 per hour. The station has only one gasoline pump. If all cars are
assumed to require one minute to obtain fuel, find the probability that a waiting line
will occur at the pump.
Q17. Independent Bernoulli trials are performed, each resulting in a success with probability
p, where 0 < p < 1.
Let the random variable X denote the number of failures that occur before the rth
success, where r is a fixed positive integer.
(a) Derive the probability mass function (PMF) of X.
(b) Explain how the negative binomial distribution reduces to the geometric distri-
bution for a suitable choice of r.
Q18. Let p = P (H) represent the probability of obtaining a head in a coin toss. For a given
coin, the a priori value of p can assume any value in the interval (0, 1), and hence we
may consider p to be a random variable. In the absence of any additional information,
assume that the a priori probability density function fp (p) is uniform over this interval.
Now suppose that an experiment is performed in which the coin is tossed n times and
k heads are observed. This constitutes new information. How should the probability
density function fp (p) be updated in light of this new information?
Q19. Among the functions given below, find the functions that are valid CDFs and determine
their respective densities. For those functions that are not valid CDFs, explain what
condition fails.
(a) ( 2
1 − e−x , x ≥ 0,
F (x) =
0, x < 0.
(b) (
e−1/x , x > 0,
F (x) =
0, x ≤ 0.
(c)
0, x ≤ 0,
1
1
F (x) = 3 , 0 < x ≤ 2 ,
1, x > 1 .
2
4
Q20. Consider a sequence of independent Bernoulli trials {Xi }i∈N with parameter of success
p ∈ (0, 1). The number of successes in the first n trials is given by
n
X
Yn = Xi .
i=1
Then Yn is distributed as a Binomial random variable with parameters n and p.
Now consider the random variable defined by
Vk = min{ n ∈ N+ : Yn = k }.
Note that V1 is distributed as a Geometric random variable with parameter p.
(a) Give a verbal description of the random variable Vk .
(b) Show that the probability mass function of the random variable Vk is given by
n−1 k
P (Vk = n) = p (1 − p) n−k ,
k−1
where n ∈ {k, k + 1, . . . }. This distribution is known as the Negative Binomial
distribution with parameters k and p.
(c) Argue that the Binomial and Negative Binomial distributions are inverse to each
other in the sense that
Yn ≥ k ⇐⇒ Vk ≤ n.
Q21. Buses arrive at ten-minute intervals starting at noon. A man arrives at the bus stop
at a random time X minutes after noon, where X has the cumulative distribution
function
0,
x < 0,
x
FX (x) = , 0 ≤ x ≤ 60,
60
1, x > 60.
What is the probability that he waits less than five minutes for a bus?