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Discrete Probability Distributions

This document contains sample problems involving various discrete probability distributions including binomial, Poisson, geometric, and hypergeometric distributions. It explores calculating probabilities and expected values for scenarios involving coin tosses, dice rolls, defective items, and more. The problems are meant to help understand and apply concepts of discrete random variables and probabilities.

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Hector Taban
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139 views2 pages

Discrete Probability Distributions

This document contains sample problems involving various discrete probability distributions including binomial, Poisson, geometric, and hypergeometric distributions. It explores calculating probabilities and expected values for scenarios involving coin tosses, dice rolls, defective items, and more. The problems are meant to help understand and apply concepts of discrete random variables and probabilities.

Uploaded by

Hector Taban
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Engineering Data Analysis

Chapter III – Discrete Probability Distributions


Sample and Miscellaneous Problems

Probability Distributions, Expectations

1. A fair coin is tossed. Let the random variable be 𝑋 with 𝑥 = 1 if the result is head
otherwise 𝑥 = 0.
a. What is the probability distribution of 𝑋?
b. What is the mean and variance of 𝑋?
c. What is ℰ[2𝑋]?
2. A loaded die is rolled. The probability of getting an even number is twice the
probability of getting an odd number. Every odd number are equally likely to
appear, so are the even numbers. Let 𝑋 be the number of dots in the upturned
face.
a. What is the probability distribution of 𝑋?
b. What is the mean and variance of 𝑋?
c. What is ℰ[𝑋 3 ]?
Discrete Uniform Distribution

1. A fair die is rolled. The number of dots in the upturned face is noted. What is the
probability of getting a 6? What is the average value of dots that appear in the
experiment?
2. An icosahedron has its faces numbered from 1,2, …. What is the average number
that will appear if the icosahedron is rolled and the topmost face’s value is noted?
Bernoulli and Binomial Distributions

1. A fair die is rolled ten times. What is the probability of observing exactly 6 6s?
What is the expected value of the dots?
2. A machine is found to incur error 22% of the time. There are 100 persons who
will use the machine (each will use the machine once and there will be no change
in the machine). What is the probability that only at most 3 persons will get
erroneous results? What is the expected number of persons which will get
erroneous results?
Hypergeometric Distribution

1. A box contains 20 fuses, 2 of which are defective. If 2 fuses are taken, what is the
probability that the taken fuses are defective? What is the average number of
defective fuses that will be observed when taking 5 fuses at a time?
2. A box contains 8 red marbles, 7 blue marbles, and 6 pink marbles. 6 marbles will
be taken without replacement. What is the probability of getting at least 4 red
marbles? If we take 4 marbles, how many blue marbles are expected to be part
of the sample?
Geometric and Negative Binomial Distributions

1. A loaded coin with probability of head four times as large as the probability of tail
is tossed until a total of three tails appeared. What is the probability that the
third tail happens on the 11th toss?
2. Three fair coins at the same time. The procedure is repeated until it is observed
that there are three heads as result. What is the probability that there will be
exactly four failures before having the successful trial? How many tosses are
expected in order to acquire the successful result?
Poisson Distribution
1. A telephone company observed that there is an average of 15 callers per hour.
What is the probability that there are exactly 2 callers in a span of 15 minutes?
2. Andhee observed that there are 7 buses passing beside a shed in an hour. What
is the probability that no bus will pass beside the shed in a span of half-hour?
Engineering Data Analysis
Chapter III – Discrete Probability Distributions
Sample and Miscellaneous Problems

Miscellaneous Problems

1. If 𝑋 is a Poisson random variable satisfying 𝑃(0) = 𝑃(1), what is 𝐸[𝑋]?


2. In a binomial distribution with fixed 𝑛, what is the value of 𝑝 that maximizes the
variance?
3. In a town of 5000 adults, a sample of 100 is asked for their opinion about a
proposed building project. 60 are in favor while 40 are not in favor. If, in fact, the
adults in the town are equally divided on the proposal, what is the probability of
obtaining at least 60 favoring the proposal from a sample of 100?
4. A fair coin is tossed 100 times. What is the chance of getting at least 4 tails?
5. Determine the expected value of 𝑋 2 when a fair tetrahedron with faces numbered
from 0 to 3 is rolled. 𝑋 pertains to the number on the bottom face.
6. A person with a certain disease is found to have 30% chance of surviving. If there
are 35 persons who contracted the disease, what is the probability that exactly
six will survive? At least 3 but at most 8 will survive? 14 will not survive?
7. Seven cards will be drawn from a regular deck of cards. What is the probability
of getting at least 1 queen? At most 5 hearts? Exactly a pair of aces?
8. Three people toss a fair coin and the odd one pays for coffee. If all results are the
same, they toss the coin again. What is the probability that no more than 4 tosses
are required?
9. Suppose a flaw in plywood occur at random with an average of one flaw per 50
square feet. What is the probability that a 4 ft × 8 ft sheet will have no flaws? At
most 1 flaw?
10. In a binomial distribution with 𝑝 = 0.2. How many trials are required to achieve
a variance of 7?
11. Computer technology has produced an environment in which robots operate with
the use of microprocessors. The probability that a robot fails during any 6-hour
shift is 0.10. What is the probability that a robot will operate through at most 5
shifts before it fails?
12. A coffee machine is observed to incur error 2% of the time. A stack of 100 cups
for the vending machine is beside it. Among the 100 cups, there are 11 that are
defective (e.g. has holes, tear, etc). If a person will get a cup and use the coffee
machine, what is the chance that he/she will be inconvenienced (the cup is
defective or the coffee machine incurs an error)?

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