Department of Mathematics

Tutorial Sheet No. 5

MTL 106 (Introduction to Probability and Stochastic Processes)
1. Find E(Y /x) where (X, Y ) is jointly distributed with density
( y
y − 1+x
f (x, y) = (1+x)4 e , x, y ≥ 0
0, otherwise.

2. Let X have a beta distribution i.e. its pdf is

1 a−1
fX (x) = β(a,b) x (1 − x)b−1 , 0 < x < 1

and Y given X = x has binomial distribution with parameters (n, x). Find E(X/y).
3. For each fixed λ > 0, let X be a Poisson distributed random variable with parameter λ. Suppose λ itself is
a random variable following a gamma distribution with pdf

8
 1 n−1 −λ

-1
f (λ) = Γ(n) λ e , λ>0
0, otherwise

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where n is a fixed positive constant. Find the pmf of the random variable X
4. Consider trinomial trials, where each trial independently results in outcome i with probability 1/3. With Xi

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equal to the number of trials that result in outcome i, find E(X1 /X2 > 0).
5. (a) Show that cov(X, Y ) = cov(X, E(Y | X)).
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(b) Suppose that, for constants a and b, E(Y | X) = a + bX. Show that b = cov(X, Y )/V ar(X).
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6. Let X be a random variable which is uniformly distributed over the interval (0, 1). Let Y be chosen from
interval (0, X] according to the pdf
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1/x, 0 < y ≤ x
f (y/x) =
m

0, otherwise.

Find E(Y k /X) and E(Y k ) for any fixed positive integer k.
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7. Suppose that a signal X, standard normal distributed, is transmitted over a noisy channel so that the received
measurement is Y = X +W , where W follows normal distribution with mean 0 and variance σ 2 is independent
of X. Find fX/y (x/y) and E(X | Y = y).
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8. A real function g(x) is non-negative and satisfies the inequality g(x) ≥ b > 0 for all x ≥ a. Prove that for a
random variable X if E(g(X)) exists then P (X ≥ a) ≤ E(g(X))b .
λ
9. Let X have a Poisson distribution with mean λ ≥ 0, an integer. Show that P (0 < X < 2(λ + 1)) ≥ λ+1 .

10. Does the random variable X exist for which P [µ − 2σ ≤ X ≤ µ + 2σ] = 0.6? Justify your answer.
11. The number of pages N in a fax transmission has geometric distribution with mean 4. The number of bits
k in a fax page also has geometric distribution with mean 105 bits independent of any other page and the
number of pages. Find the probability distribution of total number of bits in fax transmission.
12. Consider Bacteria reproduction by cell division. In any time t, a bacterium will either die (with probability
0.25), stay the same (with probability 0.25), or split into 2 parts (with probability 0.5). Assume bacteria act
independently and identically irrespective of the time. Write down the expression for the generating function
of the distribution of the size of the population at time t = n. Given that there are 1000 bacteria in the
population at time t = 50, what is the expected number of bacteria at time t = 51.

1
13. Let N be a positive integer random variable and X1 , X2 , . . . be a sequence of iid random variables. N is
independent of Xi ’s. Find the moment generating function (MGF) of SN = X1 + X2 + . . . + XN , the random
sum in terms of MGF of Xi0 s and N . Also show that:
(a) E[SN ] = E[N ]E[X] (b) V ar[SN ] = E[N ]V ar[X] + [E[X]]2 V ar[N ].
14. If E[Y /X] = 1, show that V ar[XY ] ≥ V ar[X].
15. Suppose you participate in a chess tournament in which you play until you lose a game. Suppose you are a
very average player, each game is equally likely to be a win, a loss or a tie. You collect 2 points for each win,
1 point for each tie and 0 points for each loss. The outcome of each game is independent of the outcome of
every other game. Let Xi be the number of points you earn for game i and let Y equal the total number of
points earned in the tournament. Find the moment generating function MY (t) and hence compute E(Y ).
16. Let (X, Y ) be two-dimensional random variable with joint pdf is given by
 −y
e , 0<x<y<∞
f (x, y) =
0, otherwise
(a) Find the conditional distribution of Y given X = x.

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(b) Find the regression of Y on X.

-1
(c) Show that variance of Y for give X = x does not involve x.
17. Let X ∼ Bin (n, p). Use the CLT to find n such that: P [X > n/2] ≤ 1 − α. Calculate the value of n when

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α= 0.90 and p =0.45.
18. Suppose that 30 electronic devices say D1 , D2 , . . . , D30 are used in the following manner. As soon as D1

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fails, D2 becomes operative. When D2 fails, D3 becomes operative etc. Assume that the time to failure of
Di is an exponentially distributed random variable with parameter = 0.1(hour)−1 . Let T be the total time
of operation of the 30 devices. What is the probability that T exceeds 350 hours?
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19. Let X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn be independent and ln(Xi ) has normal distribution N (2i, 1), i = 1, 2, . . . , n. Let W =
te
X1α X22α . . . Xnnα , α > 0 where α is any constant. Determine E(W ), V ar(W ) and the pdf of W .
20. For each n ≥ 1 , let Xn be an uniformly distributed random variable over set 0, n1 , n2 , · · · , n−1

n , 1 . Prove
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that Xn convergence to U [0, 1] in distribution.

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21. Suppose that Xi , i = 1, 2, . . . , 30 are independent random variables each having a Poisson distribution with
parameter 0.01. Let S = X1 + X2 + . . . + X30 .
(a) Using central limit theorem evaluate P (S ≥ 3).
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(b) Compare the answer in (a) with exact value of this probability.
22. Consider polling of n voters and record the fraction Sn of those polled who are in favour of a particular
candidate. If p is the fraction of the entire voter population that supports this candidate, then Sn =
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X1 +X2 +...+Xn
n , where Xi are independent Bernoulli distributed random variables with parameter p. How
many voters should be sampled so that we wish our estimate Sn to be within 0.01 of p with probability at
least 0.95?
23. Let (Ω, =, P ) = ([0, 1] , B (R) ∩ [0, 1] , U ([0, 1])). Let {Xn , n = 1, 2, . . .} be a sequence of random variables
d d
with Xn = U 21 − n1 , 21 + n1 . Prove or disprove that Xn −→ X with X = 12 .
 

24. Let X1 , X2 , . . . be a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables with mean 1 and
variance 1600, and assume that these variables are non-negative. Let Y = 100
P
k=1 Xk .

(a) What does Markov’s inequality tell you about the probability P (Y ≥ 900).
(b) Use the central limit theorem to approximate the probability P (Y ≥ 900). Final answer can be in terms
Rz 2
of Φ(z) where Φ(z) = √12π −∞ e−t /2 dt.