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STA408: Statistics for Science and Engineering

Tutorial 1

Discrete Probability Distribution


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1. The probability that a certain kind of component will survive a shock test is 4. Find the probability
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that exactly 2 of the next 4 components tested survive. (answer: 128
)

2. The probability that a patient recovers from a rare blood disease is 0.4. If 20 people are known to
have contracted this disease, what is the probability that
(a) at least 10 survive, (b) from 3 to 8 survive, (c) exactly 15 did not survive?
(d) How many patients are expected to survive the disease?
(answer: (a) 0.2447, (b) 0.592, (c) 0.0746 (d) 8)

3. A large chain retailer purchases a certain kind of electronic device from a manufacturer. The
manufacturer indicates that the defective rate of the device is 3%.
(a) The inspector randomly picks 20 items from a shipment. What is the probability that there
will be at least one defective item among these 20?
(b) Suppose that the retailer receives 10 shipments in a month and the inspector randomly tests
20 devices per shipment. What is the probability that there will be exactly 3 shipments each
containing at least one defective device among the 20 that are selected and tested from the
shipment?
(answer: (a) 0.4562, (b) 0.1602)

4. It is conjectured that an impurity exists in 30% of all drinking wells in a certain rural community.
In order to gain some insight into the true extent of the problem, it is determined that some testing
is necessary. It is too expensive to test all of the wells in the area, so 10 are randomly selected for
testing.
(a) Using the binomial distribution, what is the probability that exactly 3 wells have the impurity,
assuming that the conjecture is correct?
(b) What is the probability that at most 3 wells are impure?
(c) Find the probability for more than 4 wells which are pure?
(answer: (a) 0.2668, (b) 0.6496, (c) 0.9527)

5. A traffic control engineer reports that 75% of the vehicles passing through a checkpoint are from
within the state. Assume that there are 9 vehicles passing through the checkpoint.
(a) What is the probability that fewer than 3 of the next 9 vehicles are from out of state?
(b) Find the mean and variance of vehicles passing through the checkpoint are from within the
state?
(answer: (a) 0.6007, (b) 6.75, 1.6875)

6. An inventory study determines that, on average, demands for a particular item at a warehouse are
made 5 times per day. What is the probability that
(a) more than 5 items are requested on a given day,
(b) exactly 8 items are requested in the next 2 days?
(answer: (a) 0.3840, (b) 0.1126)

7. The number of customers arriving per hour at a certain automobile service facility is assumed to
follow a Poisson distribution with mean 𝜆 = 7.
(a) Compute the probability that more than 10 customers will arrive in a 2-hour period.
(b) What is the mean number of arrivals during a 2-hour period?
(answer: (a) 0.8243, (b) 14)
STA408 Tutorial 1 Chapter 1: Probability Distribution

8. Cars arrive at a motorway toll booth at an average rate of 150 cars per hour. Find the probability
that
(a) no car arrives in a given minute, (b) at least two cars arrive in 2 minutes,
(c) at most fifteen cars arrive in 10 minutes.
(answer: (a) 0.0821, (b) 0.9596, (c) 0.0223)

9. In a manufacturing process where products are made, defects or bubbles occur, occasionally
rendering the piece undesirable for marketing. It is known that, on average, 1 in every 1000 of these
items produced has one or more bubbles. What is the probability that a random sample of 8000
will yield fewer than 7 items possessing bubbles? (answer: 0.3134)

10. The probability that a student at a local high school fails the screening test for scoliosis (curvature
of the spine) is known to be 0.004. Of the next 1800 students at the school who are screened for
scoliosis, find the probability that
(a) exactly 5 fail the test, (b) at most 5 fail the test, (c) from 8 to 10 fail the test.
(answers: (a) 0.1204, (b) 0.2759, (c) 0.3178)

11. Each 500-meter roll of sheet steel includes two flaws, on average. A flaw is a scratch which would
affect the use of that segment of sheet steel in the finished product. What is the probability that a
particular 200-meter roll of sheet steel will include at most a flaw? (answer: 0.8088)

12. The phone lines to an airline reservation system are occupied 75% of the time. Assume the events
that the lines are occupied on successive calls are independent. Twenty calls are placed to the
airline. What is the probability that more than eight calls to the airline are not occupied?
(answer: 0.0409)

13. A successful tailor in a town receives very few complaints from the customers and thus she has to
do some minor alternatives. Typically, 2% of her customers complained. If a random sample of
200 customers were selected, what is the probability that between 5 and 9 customers complained?
Use Poisson approximation. (answer: 0.1935)

14. In a process of manufacturing commercial carpets, small faults occur at random in a carpet at an
average rate of 1.2 per 20m2. Find the probability that
(a) in a randomly selected 20m2 area, there are no faults;
(b) in a randomly selected 40m2 area, there are at most 5 small faults.
(answer: (a) 0.3012, (b) 0.9643)

15. It is known by researcher that five percent of people inherit a gene that leads to a certain disease.
Given that a random sample of 20 people is chosen, find the probability that
(a) fewer than four people would inherit the gene.
(b) more than fifteen people would not inherit the gene.
(answer: (a) 0.9841, (b) 0.9974)

Normal Distribution
16. A certain type of storage battery lasts, on overage, 3.0 years with a standard deviation of 0.5 year.
Assuming that battery life is normally distributed, find that a given battery will last less than 2.3
years. (answer: 0.0808)

17. An electrical firm manufactures light bulbs that have a life, before burn-out, that is normally
distributed with mean equal to 800 hours and a standard deviation of 40 hours. Find the probability
that a bulb burns between 778 and 834 hours. (answer: 0.5111)

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STA408 Tutorial 1 Chapter 1: Probability Distribution

18. The average grade for an exam is 74 and a standard deviation is 7. If 12% of the class is given As,
and the grades are curved to follow a normal distribution, what is the lowest possible A and the
highest possible B? (answer: The lowest A is 83 and the highest B is 82)

19. Given a standard normal distribution, find the value of 𝑘 such that
(a) 𝑃(𝑍 > 𝑘) = 0.2946, (b) 𝑃(𝑍 < 𝑘) = 0.0427, (c) 𝑃(−0.93 < 𝑍 < 𝑘) = 0.7235.
(answer: (a) 0.54, (b) −1.72, (c) 1.28)

20. Given the normally distributed variable 𝑋 with mean 18 and variance 6.25, find
(a) 𝑃(𝑋 > 15), (b) 𝑃(17 < 𝑋 < 21),
(c) the value of 𝑘 such that 𝑃(𝑋 > 𝑘) = 0.2236,
(d) the value of 𝑘 such that 𝑃(𝑋 < 𝑘) = 0.1814. .
(answer: (a) 0.8849, (b) 0.5403 (c) 19.9, (c) 15.725)

21. The heights of 1000 students are normally distributed with a mean of 174.5 centimetres and a
standard deviation of 6.9 centimetres. Assuming that the heights are recorded to the nearest half-
centimetre, how many of these students would you expect to have heights
(a) greater than or equal to 188.0 centimetres, (answer: 25)
(b) less than 160.0 centimetres, (answer: 18)
(c) between 171.5 and 182.0 centimetres inclusive, (answer: 528)
(d) equal to 175 centimetres? (answer: none)

22. The reaction time to a certain psychological experiment is considered to be normally distributed
with a mean of 20 seconds and a variance of 16 seconds.
(a) What is the probability a subject taking between 15 and 30 seconds to react?
(b) If only 10% of subjects react faster than 𝑋 seconds, determine the value of 𝑋.
(answer: (a) 0.88819, (b) 14)

23. A scientist found that the time taken to carry out an experiment can be treated as a random variable
having a normal distribution with mean 155 minutes and standard deviation 3.5 minutes.
(a) Find the probability that the time taken to carry out an experiment is more than 150 minutes.
(b) If 20% of the experiments take less than m minutes, find the value of m.
(c) Find the probability that the experiment is carried out between 148 and 160 minutes.
(answer: (a) 0.9236, (b) 152.06, (c) 0.90085)

Miscellaneous Questions
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24. Six seeds are planted. Each seed has probability 4
of germinating. What is the probability that
exactly two seed will germinate. (answer: 0.03296)

25. A factory produces silicon chips, of which 15% are defective. A random sample of 20 chips were
selected.
(a) Find the probability that fewer than six silicon chips are defective. (answer: 0.9327)
(b) Find the expected number of defective silicon chips. (answer: 3)

26. Independently on each page, the number of typing errors per page in the final draft of a thesis has
a Poisson distribution with parameter 0.05.
(a) Find the probability that a randomly chosen page will contain no typing error.
(b) Find the probability that ten randomly chosen pages contain more than one typing error.
(c) The final draft of the thesis contains a total of 240 pages. What is the probability that the draft
contains at most ten typing errors.
(answers: (a) 0.9512, (b) 0.0902, (c) 0.3472)

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STA408 Tutorial 1 Chapter 1: Probability Distribution

27. The number of cars which stop at a petrol station per minute follows a Poisson distribution with
parameter 1.7. Find the probability that
(a) at least six cars will stop in 4 minutes, (answer: 0.6730)
(b) one car will stop in half a minute. (answer: 0.3633)

28. A survey found that 60% of pet owners do not have their pets bathed professionally as they rather
do it themselves. If 20 pet owners are randomly selected, find the probability that not more than
fourteen people have their pets bathed professionally. (answer: 0.9984)

29. A firm sends out letters to 2000 customers. Each letter has probability 0.002 of being incorrectly
addressed. Use Poisson approximation to find the probability that fewer than six are incorrectly
addressed. (answer: 0.7851)

30. The electrical resistors made by a machine has a mean resistance of 40 ohms and a standard
deviation of 2 ohms. Assume the resistance follows a normal distribution. Find the resistance
exceeded by 65% of the resistors. (answer: 39.2294)

31. Consider a test that contains 10 multiple-choice questions with 4 possible choices for each
question, only one of which is correct. Suppose a student is selected randomly. Let 𝑋 be the number
of questions the student answers correctly.
(a) Write down the distribution of 𝑋.
(b) Find the probability that the student did not get any answer correct.
(c) The student would fail the test if he answers more than 5 questions wrongly. What is the
probability that the student failed the test.
(d) Find the expected number of questions the student answers correctly.
(answer: (a) 𝑋~𝐵𝑖𝑛(𝑛 = 10, 𝑝 = 0.25), (b) 0.0563, (c) 0.9219, (d) 2.5 )

32. Patients arrive at a hospital accident and emergency department at random at a rate of 6 per hour.
(a) Find the probability that during any 90 minute period, the number of patients arriving at the
hospital accident and emergency department is
(i) exactly 7, (ii) at most 10.
(b) A patient arrives at 11.30 a.m. Find the probability that more than one patient arrive before
11.45 a.m.
(answer: (a) (i) 0.1171, (ii) 0.7060, (b) 0.4422)

33. Breakages of crockery occur in the kitchen of a hotel at an average rate of 2.5 per week. Find the
probability that
(a) in any given week, there will be exactly four breakages, (answer: 0.1336)
(b) in 4 weeks, there will be fewer than 15 breakages. (answer: 0.9165)

34. It is known from past records that 1 in 20 balloons produced by a factory is defective.
(a) Twenty balloons were chosen at random, find the probability that at most three balloons are
defective.
(b) To monitor the production, a random sample of 140 balloons was taken and the number of
defective balloons was recorded. Use an appropriate approximation to find the probability
that more than six balloons are defective.
(answer: (a) 0.9841, (b) 0.5503)

35. A vending machine dispenses tea into cups. A sign on the machine indicates that each cup contains
45 ml of tea. The machine actually dispenses a mean amount of 48 ml per cup and 10% of the cups
contain less than the amount stated on the sign. Assume that the amount of tea dispensed into each
cup is normally distributed. Find the standard deviation of the amount of tea dispensed per cup in
ml. (answer: 2.3408)

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STA408 Tutorial 1 Chapter 1: Probability Distribution

36. The lengths of certain snakes can be modelled by a normal distribution with mean 20 cm and
variance 25 cm2.
(a) Find the probability of a randomly chosen snake with length less than 13 cm.
(b) It is known that 60% of the snakes have lengths more than L cm. Find the value of L.
(answer: (a) 0.0808, (b) 18.7335)
37. During office hours, telephone calls to a single telephone in an office come in at an average rate of
15 calls per hour. Find the probability that there will be
(a) not more than eight calls in a 10 minute period. (answer: 0.9989)
(b) fewer than 2 calls in a 5 minute period. (answer: 0.6446)

38. Over a period of time, it is found that 7% of goods produced by a manufacturer are defective. If a
sample of 50 goods is selected at random, find the probability that there will be
(a) none defective, (b) at most 43 goods are not defective.
(c) Find the expected number of goods which are defective and its standard deviation.
(d) Use an appropriate approximation, find the probability of more than seven defective goods.
(answers: (a) 0.0266; (b) 0.0583; (c) 1.804; (d) 0.0267)

39. A factory produces components of which 1% are defective. The components are packed in boxes of
10. A box is selected at random.
(a) Find the probability that the box contains exactly one defective component.
(b) Find the probability that there are fewer than 2 defective components in the box.
(c) Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that a batch of 250 components contain
between 1 and 5 defective components.
(answers: (a) 0.0913, (b) 0.9957, (c) 0.6039)

40. The probability of a telesales representative making a sale on a customer call is 0.03.
(a) Find the probability that no sales are made in 10 calls.
(b) Find the probability that fewer than three sales are made in 20 calls.
(c) Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that between 5 and 12 sales will be made
in 200 calls.
(answers: (a) 0.7374, (b) 0.9790, (c) 0.5342)

41. On average, 0.7 messages per hour are left on an answering machine. Assume that the number of
messages follows a Poisson distribution, find the probability that
(a) there are no messages in an hour; (b) there are at most seven messages in eight hours;
(c) fewer than 2 messages in 30 minutes.
(answers: (a) 0.4966, (b) 0.7970 (c) 0.9513)

42. When an item is sent by a courier service, the probability that it will be delayed or lost is 0.05. If
100 items are sent by this service, calculate the probability that
(a) exactly three are delayed or lost; (b) at least 94 are not delayed or lost.
(c) Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that fewer than three items are delayed
or lost.
(d) What is the expected number of items which are not delayed or lost?
(answer: (a) 0.1395, (b) 0.7660, (c) 0.1247, (d) 95)

43. Past records show that the times, in seconds, taken to run 100 m by children at a school can be
modelled by a normal distribution with a mean of 16.12 and a standard deviation of 1.60.
(a) Find the probability that a randomly chosen child from the school runs 100 m in less than 17
seconds?
(b) On sports day, the school awards certificate to the fastest 30% of children in the 100 m race.
Estimate the slowest time taken to run 100 m for which a child will be awarded a certificate.
(answer: (a) 0.7088, (b) 15.28096)

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STA408 Tutorial 1 Chapter 1: Probability Distribution

44. The distances travelled to work, D km, by the employees at a large company is normally distribution
with a mean of 30 km and a variance of 64.
(a) Find the probability that a randomly selected employee has a journey to work of more than
21 km.
(b) Eighty percent of the employees are said to travel at most 36 km to work daily. Assume that
the mean remains the same but the standard deviation has changed. Find the value of the new
standard deviation.
(answer: (a) 0.8708, (b) 7.1293)

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