Problems on Probability Distributions

Discrete probability Distribution

P #1. The mean and variance of a binomial distribution are 3 and 2 respectively.Find the
parameters of the distribution and hence find the probability that the variable takes
values : (i) less than or equal to 2 (ii) greater than 7
P #2. A box contains 100 C.D.s, 15 of which are defective , 5 are selected for
inspection. Find the probability that (i) all are defectives (ii) all are good
(iii) at least one is defective (iv) at most 2 are defectives
P #3. The incidence of a certain disease is such that on the average 20% of workers
suffer from it. If 6 workers are selected at random, find the probability that
i)Exactly two workers suffer from the disease (ii) not more than two workers
suffer from the disease
P# 4. An industrial chemical that will retard the spread of fire in paint has been
developed, The local sales representative has estimated, from past
experience that 48% of the sales calls result in an order.
a) what is the probability that the first order will come on the 4 th sales call
of the day?
b) If eight sales calls are made in a day, what is the probability of receiving
exactly six orders
c) If four sales calls are made before lunch, what is the probability that one
or fewer results in an order?
P # 5. The hawks are currently winning 0.55 of their games. There are 5 games in the next
two weeks. What is the probability that they will win more games than they lose ?
P# 6.The number of hurricanes hitting the coast of Florida annually as a Poisson
distribution with a mean of 0.8.
a) what is the probability that more than two hurricanes will hit the Florida
coast in a year?
b) what is the probability that exactly one hurricane will hit the coast of Florida
in a year?
P# 7.Arrivals at a bank tellers drive-through window are Poisson distributed at the rate
Of 1.2 per minute. What is the probability of :
a) zero arrivals in the next minute (b) zero arrivals in the next two minutes

P# 8. A computer repair person is beeped each time there is a call for service.
The number of beeps per hour is known to occur in accordance with a Poisson
distribution with a mean of two per hour. Find the probability of three beeps
in the next hour? ( Given e- 2 = 0.1353 )
P# 9.A local electrical appliances shop has found from experience that the demand for
Tube lights is distributed as Poisson with a mean of 3 tubes per week. If the
shop keeps 4 tubes during particular week, what is the probability that the
demand will exceed the supply during that week ?(given e -3=0.049787
P # 10.If 2% of electric bulbs manufactured by a certain company are defective, find
The probability that the sample of 200 bulbs,
i) less than two bulbs
(ii) more than three bulbs are defective
P # 11. Records indicate that 1.8% of the entering students at a large state University
Drop out of school by midterm. What is the probability that three or fewer students
Will drop out of a random group 300 entering students.
P#12.It is known from past experience that in a certain plant there are on an average
four industrial accidents per month. Find the probability that in a given month
there will be less than four accidents.
P#13.What probability model is appropriate to describe a situation where 100 misprints
are distributed randomly throughout the 100 pages of a book? For this model,
what is the probability that a page observed at random will contain at least three
misprints. (given e-1=0.368).
P#14.40% of the assembled ink-jet printers are rejected at the inspection station. Find
The probability that the first acceptable ink-jet printer is the third one inspected.
Considering each inspection as a Bernoulli trial with q = 0.4 and p= 0.6
P#15. A dealer has 12 Maruti Zen cars and 8 Santro cars in his shop. If sample of 4 cars
are selected without replacement from the shop. Find the probability that (i) at most
one Santro car is selected (ii) at least one Maruti Zen car is selected.
P#16. Five cards are selected without replacement from a pack of 52 cards. Find the
probability that (i) exactly two diamond cards are selected (ii) at least two diamond
cards are selected.
P#17. In a given city on a Saturday night, channel twelve has 50 % of the viewing
audience, channel ten has 30 % of the viewing audience & channel five has
20% of the viewing audience: Find the probability that amongst eight television
viewers in that city randomly chosen on Saturday night , 5 will be watching
channel twelve, 2 will be watching channel ten and 1 will be watching channel 5

P#18. In a recent election there were 3 candidates A,B and C. A received 20% of the
votes B received 30% and C received 50% of the votes. If 6 voters are selected
randomly , what is the probability that there will be exactly one supporter for
candidate A, two for B and three for C in the sample.

P#19. Selling candy:

Pat is required to sell candy bars to raise money for the 6th grade field trip. There are thirty
houses in the neighborhood, and Pat is not supposed to return home until five candy
bars have been sold. So the child goes door to door, selling candy bars. At each house,
there is a 0.4 probability of selling one candy bar and a 0.6 probability of selling nothing.
What's the probability of selling the last candy bar at the nth house?
Recall that the NegBin(r, p) distribution describes the probability of k failures and r successes
in k + r Bernoulli(p) trials with success on the last trial. Selling five candy bars means getting five
successes. The number of trials (i.e. houses) this takes is thereforek + 5 = n. The random variable we
are interested in is the number of houses, so we substitute k = n 5 into a NegBin(5, 0.4) mass function
and obtain the following mass function of the distribution of houses (for n 5):

What's the probability that Pat finishes on the tenth house?

What's the probability that Pat finishes on or before reaching the eighth house?
To finish on or before the eighth house, Pat must finish at the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth
house. Sum those probabilities:

What's the probability that Pat exhausts all 30 houses in the neighborhood?
This can be expressed as the probability that Pat does not finish on the fifth through the thirtieth
house:

Continuous Probability Distributions

P #20. The demand of cakes (in kg. ) at a bakery shows rectangular distribution in
(1000, 1500). Find the probability that on a certain day the demand would be
(i) at least 1200 kg. (ii) between 1100 kg. and 1400 kg. and (iii) at most 1400 kg.
P #21. a baking company sells cakes by weight. The manager of the company finds that
the demand for cake on a day varies in a uniform manner between 2000 kg. and
3000 kg. Further he finds the distribution of profit asunder from his experience :
Daily demand (in kg.) : 2000 2250
2250 2500
2500 3000
Average Profit(in Rs.) :
980
1130
1340
(a) Find the probability that on a randomly selected day the demand lies between
(i) 2000 and 2250 kg.
(ii) 2250 and 2500 kg. and (iii) 2500 and 3000 kg.
(b) Hence find the expected profit on a randomly chosen day.
P #22. The distribution of number of words written per day by a certain writer over a
period of one year showed rectangular distribution over (1000,2000). Find the
chance that on a randomly chosen day of the year he wrote (i) at least 1200 words
(ii) any where from 1250 to 1750 words.
P #23. The life (in hours) of electronic tubes manufactured by a certain process is known
to have pd.f.
f(x) = 1/500 e- 1/500(x 500 ) , x 500
=0
other wise
Determine the chance of one such tube lasting for (i) at least 1000 hours
(ii) at most 1500 hours (iii) at lest 400 hours (iv) any where from 600 to 900 hrs.
P #24. The mileage (in thousands of miles ) which car owners get with a certain kind of
tyres is a random variable having probability density function :
f(x) = 1/20 e- x/20 , x >0
= 0 other wise
Find the probability that one of these tyres will last for
(i) at most 10000 miles (ii) any where from 16000 to 24000 miles
P #25. It is known that the number of days that a certain machine would work without a

major repair is exponentially distributed with mean of 100 days. Find the probability
that (i) it would operate for 200 days with out a major repair (ii) it would require a
major repair any time after 200 days but before 300 days.
P #26. The lifetime , in years , of a satellite placed in orbit is given by the following pdf
f(x) = 0.4 e 0.4 x , x > 0
=0
other wise
(a) What is the probability that this satellite is still alive after 5 years ?
(b) What is the probability that the satellite dies between 3 and 6 years from the
time it is placed in orbit.
P #27. If X is normally distributed with mean 100 and s.d. 10 , find (i) P(90 < X < 105 )
(ii) P(X < 120 ) (iii) P( X > 85) (iv) P(105 < X < 115)
P #28. If the heights of 1000 soldiers in a regiment are normally distributed with a mean of
172 cm. and s.d. of 5 cm. , how many soldiers have heights greater than 180 cm
P #29. The income distribution of a group of 10000 persons was found to be normal with
mean of Rs. 7500 per month and s.d. of Rs. 500 per month. What percentage of
this group had income (i) exceeding Rs. 6680 (ii) not more than Rs. 7000
P #30. The linear measurements of the items of a product are approximately normally
distributed with a mean of 20 cm. and a s.d. of 4 cm. Items which measure between
18 cm. and 23 cm. are sold at Rs. 5 each and the other items at Rs. 3 each. Find
the total amount collected if in all 10000 items are sold. How many items must be
of measurement 26 cm. or more ?
P #31. IQ scores are normally distributed throughout society , with mean 100 and s.d. 15.
(a) A person with an IQ of 140 or higher is called a genius. What proportion of
society is in genius category ?
(b) What proportion of society will miss the genius category by 5 or less points ?
(c) Suppose that an IQ of 110 or higher is required to make it through an accredited
college or university. What proportion could be eliminated for completing a
higher education by a low IQ score ?
P # 32. A set of examination marks is approximately normally distributed with mean of 75
and standard deviation of 5. If top 5% students get grade A and the bottom 25% get
grade F , what marks is the lowest A and what marks is the highest F ?
P # 33. For a normal distribution of 100 items , the lower quartile Q1 = 73 and is 15.
Find (i) Median (ii) limits for central 50 % of the distribution (iii) Mean deviation
P # 34. The distribution of monthly incomes of a group of 3000 factory workers is following
normal distribution with the mean equal to Rs. 10000 and s.d. Rs 2000.
Find (i) the percentage of workers having a monthly income of more than
Rs. 12000

(ii) the number of workers having a monthly income of less than Rs. 9000
(iii)the highest monthly income among the lowest paid 100 workers
(iv) the least monthly income among the highest paid 100 workers
P #35. Let X be a random variable that is normally distributed , with mean 10 and
Variance 4. Find the values of a and b such that P(a < x < b) = 0.9
and | - a | = | - b |

P #36. Given the following distributions :

Normal(10,4)
Uniform(4,16)
Find P(6< X < 8)
P #37. A medical examination is given in three stages by a physician. Each stage is
exponentially distributed with a mean service time of 20 minutes. Find the
probability that the exam will take 50 minutes or less. Also ,determine the expected
length of the exam.
k-1

F(x) = 1 - [e -kx(kx)i] / i!

, x>0

i=0

=0

k = 3 , k = 1/ 20
= 1/60

, x0
2

F(50) = 1 - e-5/2(5/2)i / i!
i=0

= 1 0.543
= 0.457
The expected length of the exam E(x) = 1 /
= 1 / (1/60)
= 60 minutes
P#38. Lead time of a product in weeks is gamma distributed with =2 and = 1.What is
the probability that the lead time exceeds 3 weeks.
P#39. Life time of an expensive video card for a PC , in months , denoted by random
variable X , is gamma distributed with = 4 and = 1/16. What is the probability
that the card will last for at least 2 years ?
P#40. Suppose a person will buy a product after they have seen an advertisement .
What is this probability will exceed 0.90 ?
The random variable follows the distribution f(x) = 60 y 3 (1-y)2 , 0 < y < 1
= 0 other wise

Testing of Hypothesis
Chi-square test for goodness of fit:
P#1. Suppose that a Gambler s die is rolled 60 times and a record is kept of the number of
times each face comes up. If the die is an honest die , each face will have the
probability 1/6 of appearing in a single roll. Therefore, each face would be expected to
appear 10 times in an experiment of this kind.
Face
:
1
2
3
4
5
6
Observed frequency:
15
7
4
11
6
17
H0 : P1 = P2 = P3 = P4 = P5 = P6 = 1/6
H1 : Not H0
(Multinomial distribution)
Chi square calculated = 13.6
chi square table( at = 5% dof= 6-1 =5) = 11.1
Decision : H0 is rejected at = 5% and conclude that the die is not Honest or
not unbiased
P #2. Four identical coins are tossed 160 times and the number of heads appearing
each time is recorded as follows :
No. of heads : 0 1
2
3
4
Frequency : 14 30
70
35
11
Test the hypothesis that the coins are unbiased at = 1%
P #3. In an accounting department of a bank 100 account s are selected at random and
examined for errors. The following results have been obtained : .
No. of errors
: 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
No. of accounts : 35 40 18
2
1
2
2
Does this information verify that the errors are distributed according to the Poisson
Probability law. Given = 5%
Chi square test of independence of Attributes :
P # 4. The following data are from a study found in the Journal Biometrika. Are they
consistent with the view that the proportion of intelligent students is the same
for athletes and nonatheletes ?
Athletes
Non athletes

Intelligent
581
209

Not Intelligent
567
351

Ans. : Chi-square calculated

=26.765 , Chi-square table at = 5% = 3.841

P # 5. A sample 320 units of a manufactured product classified according to the quality of
the product and the production shift is given below :
Quality
Good
Bad
Day shift
150
20
Night shift
105
45
Using chi-square test , find whether quality depends on shift ?

P # 6. A drug is claimed to be effective in curing colds. In an experiment on 160

persons with cold , half of them were given the drug , and half of them were
given sugar pills. The patients ,reactions to the treatment are recorded in the
following table :
Helped
Harmed
No effect
Drug
52
10
20
Sugar pills 44
12
26
Test by means of chi-square ,the hypothesis that the drug is not better than the
sugar pills in curing colds.
H0 : Drug and sugar pills are equally effective(Given the value of chi-square
For 2 dof at 5% level is 5.99)
ANOVA :
P # 7. The following figures relate to the production in Kg of three varieties A,B,C of wheat
sown in 12 plots.
A
B
C
14
14
18
16
13
16
18
15
19
20
22
19
Is there any significant difference in the mean yield of three varieties ? = 5%
H0 : There is no significance difference in the mean yield of three varieties.
i.e. 1 = 2 = 3
Using coding : subtract 12 from each value.
P # 8. A company appoints four salesmen A,B,C and D and observes their sales in three
seasons Summer ,Winter and Monsoon. The figures in lakhs are given in the
following table :
Salesmen
Season
A
B
C
D
Summer
36
36
21
35
Winter
28
29
31
32
Monsoon
26
28
29
29
(1) Test whether the mean sales of all the salesmen are equal
(2) Test whether the mean sales are equal in all the seasons
= 5%

t test :
P # 9. A machine is designed to produce insulating washers for electrical devices of
average thickness of 0.025 cm. A random sample of 10 washers was found to have
an average thickness of 0.024 cm with a s.d. of 0.002 cm. Test the significance of
the deviation. = 5% t table for 9 dof at = 5% is 2.262
P # 10. A soap manufacturing company was distributing a particular brand of soap through
a large number of retail soaps. Before heavy advertisement campaign ,the mean
sales per week per shop was 140 dozens. After the campaign ,a sample of 26 shops
was taken and the mean sales was found to be 147 dozens with s.d. 16.
Can you consider the advertisement effective ? at = 5% , t table at = 5% for 25
dof is 1.708
H0 : = 140(Advertisement was not effective )
H1 : > 140

F test for comparing two population variances

P # 11. A firm wants to make a choice amongst certain makes of cycle tubes. It gathered
information on the average running life and bursting strength of tubes on the basis
of samples drawn at random large lots of those makes. The information in regard to
the two makes A and B are given below. The firm wants to know if the variance of
the two makes are significantly different by applying F test at = 5%.
Brand
A
B
Sample size
21
16
s.d.
2.5
1.5
Mean running life 100
95
P # 12. It is known that the mean diameters of rivets produced by two firms A and B are
practically the same but the s.d.s differ. For 22 rivets produced by firm A , the s.d.
is 2.9 mm while 16 rivets manufactured by firm B , the s.d. is 3.8mm.
Test the hypothesis that whether the product of firm A has the same variability as
those of firm B. F0.05( 21, 15) = 2.30 and F0.05(15,21) = 2.18

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