Department of Mathematics

MAL 250 (Probability and Stochastic Processes)

Tutorial Sheet No. 2
1. A dice is tossed two times. Let X=sum of face values on the tosses:Y= absolute difference in the face values
on two tosses. Find distribution functions of random variables X and Y. Using distribution functions evaluate
following probabilities (a)P (X ≤ 8) (b) P (Y > 3) (c) P (X = 5) (d) P (1.5 ≤ X ≤ 9.2) (e) P (1.2 < Y ≤ 4)?.
2. Do the following functions define distribution functions.
(a)F (x) = 0 if x < 0, = x if 0 ≤ x ≤ 21 , = 1 if x > 12
(b)F (x) = ( π1 )tan−1 x, −∞ < x < ∞
(c)F (x) = 1 − e−x if 0 < x < ∞, = 0 otherwise
3. Out of a job population of 10 jobs of class 1 and four of class 2, a random sample of size n is selected. Let X
be the number of class 1 jobs in the sample.Calculate the pmf of X if the sampling is without replacement.
4. A mischievous student wants to break into a computer file which is password protected. Assume there are n
equally likely passwords , and the student chooses passwords independently and at random and tries them.
Let Nn be the number of trials required to break the file. Determine pmf of Nn if unsuccessful passwords
are eliminated from further selection.
5. For what values of α, p does the following function represent a probability mass function

pX (x) = αpx , x = 0, 1, 2, . . .

Prove that the random variable having such a probability mass function satisfies the following no memory
property

P (X > a + s/X > a) = P (X ≥ s)

6. Let
FX (x) = 0, x < 3
1
= , 3≤x<4
3
1
= , 4≤x<5
2
3
= , 5≤x<6
5
= 1, x ≥ 6.
Is FX a distribution function? What type of random variable is X? If it is discrete, write its probability
mass function. Compute P (2 ≤ X ≤ 4).
7. Verify that the following functions are probability density functions
(a)
f (x) = |x|, |x| < 1
= 0, elsewhere

(b)
1 2
f (x) = x ,0 < x ≤ 1
2
= x2 − 3(x − 1)2 , 1 < x ≤ 2
= x2 − 3(x − 1)2 + 2(x − 2)2 , 2 < x ≤ 3
= 0, elsewhere

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 Find the corresponding distribution functions.
8. Verify that

FX (t) = 0, −∞ < t < 0

1
= t2 , 0 ≤ t <
2
1
= 1 − 3(1 − t)2 , ≤ t < 1
2
= 1, t ≥ 1

is a distribution function of a continuous random variable. Using this distribution function evaluate
(i)P ( 41 ≤ x ≤ 34 )
(ii)P (X > 43 /X > 41 )
Also find pdf of random variable X.
9. The amount of bread(in hundreds of pounds)that a certain bakery is able to sell in a day is a random variable
with pdf given below

fX (x) = Ax, 0 ≤ x < 5

= A(10 − x), 5 ≤ x ≤ 10

(i)Find A ,(ii) Graph the pdf (iii) What is the probability that the number of pounds of bread that will be
sold tomorrow is (a)more than 500 pounds (b) less than 500 pounds (c) between 250 and 750 pounds? (d)
If it is known that the pounds of bread sold on a day was between 250 and 750, what is the probability that
quantity sold is more than 500 pounds?.
10. The probability that a fluorescent light has a useful life of atleast 500 hours is .85. Find the probability that
among 20 lights
(a) exactly 18 will have useful life of atleast 500 hours
(b) atleast 15 will have useful life of atleast 500 hours
(c) atleast 12 will not have useful life of atleast 500 hours.
11. A food processor claims that atmost 10% of his jars of instant coffee contain less coffee than claimed on the
label. To test this claim, 10 jars of his instant coffee are randomly selected and then contents are weighed;
his claim is accepted if fewer than three of the jars contain less coffee than claimed on the label. Find the
probability that the food processor’s claim is accepted when the actual percentage of his jars containing less
coffee than claimed is 15%.
12. If 6 of 18 new buildings in a city violate the building code, what is the probability that a building inspector
who randomly inspects four of the new buildings will catch
(a) none of the new buildings that violate the building code.
(b) atleast three of the new buildings that violate the building code.
13. A shipment of 120 burglar alarms contains 5 that are defective. If 3 of these burglar alarms are randomly
selected and shipped to a customer,
(a)find the exact probability that he will get exactly one bad unit.
(b)approximate probability that he will get exactly one bad unit by means of the binomial distribution.
14. In a certain city, 5% of all drivers get atleast a parking ticket per year. Use the Poisson distribution to
approximate the binomial distribution to determine that among 12 drivers (randomly choosen in a city)
(a)atleast two will get atleast one parking ticket during the next year.
(b) anywhere from 4 to 8 inclusive will get atleast one parking ticket during the next year.

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15. The number of weekly breakdown of a computer is a random variable having a Poisson distribution with
α = .03.
(a)What is the probability that computer will have even number of breakdown during the given week?.
(b)If the computer is run for 10 consecutive weeks what is the probability that (i) atleast two weeks have no
breakdown (ii)10th is the first week to have a breakdown?.
16. At a checkout counter customers arrive at an average rate of 1.5 per minute.Find the probability that
(a) atleast 3 customers will arrive in an interval of 40 minutes
(b) atmost 15 will arrive in an interval of 6 minutes.
17. In a torture test a light switch is turned on and off until it fails. If the probability that the switch will fail
any time it is turned ’on’ or ’off’ is 0.001, what is probability that the switch will fail after it has been turned
on or off 1200 times?.
18. In the inspection of thin plates produced by a continuous electrotype process, the probability of spotting
in imperfection in a very small interval of time 4t is 0.24t, time being measured in minutes, what are the
probabilities of spotting respectively 0,1 and 2 imperfections in 5 minutes?
19. The flow of a traffic at a main stream crossing is described by saying that the probability of car passing
during a given second is a constant p and that there is no interaction between the passing of the cars at
different seconds. Suppose that a pedestrian can cross the street only if no car is to pass during the next 3
seconds. What is the probability that he has to wait exactly for 2 seconds?
20. A random number choosen from the interval (0, 1) by a random mechanism. What is the probability that (i)
its first decimal will be 3 (ii) its second decimal will be 3 (iii) its first two decimal will be 3’s?.
21. The life time (in hours) of a certain piece of equipment is a continuous random variable X, having pdf

xe−x/100
fX (x) = ,0 < x < ∞
104
= 0, otherwise.

If four pieces of this equipment are selected independently of each other from a lot,what is the probability
that atleast two of them have life length more than 20 hours?.
22. Given a line AB, whose midpoint is C and whose length is a. A point P is chosen at random on this line
what is the probability that AP, BP and AC form a triangle.
23. Let X be a binomial r.v. with parameter n and p and Y be a Pascal r.v. with parameters r and p. Show
that
(i) P (Y ≤ n) = P (X ≥ r)
(ii) P (Y > n) = P (X < r).
24. Suppose that the life length (in hours) of a certain radio tube is a continuous random variable X with pdf
100
fX (x) = , x > 100
x2
= 0, elsewhere
(a) What is the prbability that tube will last less than 200 hours if it is known that the tube is still functioning
after 150 hours of service?
(b)What is the probability that if 3 such tubes are installed in a set, exactly one will have to be replaced
after 150 hours of service?
(c) What is the maximum number of tubes that may be inserted into a set so that there is a probability of
atleast 0.5 that after 150 hours of service all of there are still functioning?

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25. Jobs arriving to a computer system have been found to require CPU time that can be modelled by an
exponential distribution with parameter 1/140 per millisecond. The CPU scheduling discipline is quantum
oriented so that a job not completing within a quantum of 100 milliseconds will be routed back to the tail
of the queue of waiting jobs. Find the probability that an arriving job will be forced to wait for a second
quantum.
26. Specifications for a certain job calls for washers with an inside diameter of .300 ± .005 inch. If the inside
diameter of the washers follows normal distribution with parameter µ = .302 inch and σ = .003 inch then
what percentage of washers meet the specifications?.(b) If 10 such randomly chosen washers are inspected
find the probability that not more than 2 would be outside the specifications.

27. An electric device contains 5 electron tubes. The time until failure for each of the five is assumed to
be exponential random variable with parameter 1/1000. If the tubes are connected in series and operate
independently. What is the probability that the device will work for atleast 2000 hours? What is the
probability if the tubes are connected in parallel rather than in series?
28. Suppose that the life length of two electronic devices say D1 and D2 have normal distributions N(40,36) and
N(45,9) respectively. If a device is to be used for 45 hours, which device would be preferred? If it is to be
used for 42 hours which one should be preferred?
29. Find the mean and variance of (i) binomial (ii)geometric (iii)negative binomial (iv)Poisson (v)uniform
(vi)normal (vii)exponential (viii)gamma distributions.