CHAPTER 5—DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

PROBLEM

1. Thirty-two percent of the students in a management class are graduate students. A random sample of 5
students is selected. Using the binomial probability function, determine the probability that the
sample contains exactly 2 graduate students?
ANS:
0.322 (rounded)

2. Seventy percent of the students applying to a university are accepted. Using the binomial probability
tables, what is the probability that among the next 18 applicants

a. At least 6 will be accepted?

b. Exactly 10 will be accepted?
c. Exactly 5 will be rejected?
d. Fifteen or more will be accepted?
e. Determine the expected number of acceptances.
f. Compute the standard deviation.
ANS:
a. 0.9986
b. 0.0811
c. 0.2017
d. 0.1646
e. 12.6
f. 1.9442

3. General Hospital has noted that they admit an average of 8 patients per hour.

a. What is the probability that during the next hour less then 3 patients will be admitted?
b. What is the probability that during the next two hours exactly 8 patients will be admitted?
ANS:
a. 0.0137
b. 0.0120

4. Twenty-five percent of the employees of a large company are minorities. A random sample of 7
employees is selected.

a. What is the probability that the sample contains exactly 4 minorities?

b. What is the probability that the sample contains fewer than 2 minorities?
c. What is the probability that the sample contains exactly 1 non-minority?
d. What is the expected number of minorities in the sample?
e. What is the variance of the minorities?
ANS:
a. 0.0577
b. 0.4450
c. 0.0013
 d. 1.75
e. 1.3125

5. A salesperson contacts eight potential customers per day. From past experience, we know that the
probability of a potential customer making a purchase is .10.

a. What is the probability the salesperson will make exactly two sales in a day?
b. What is the probability the salesperson will make at least two sales in a day?
c. What percentage of days will the salesperson not make a sale?
d. What is the expected number of sales per day?
ANS:
a. 0.1488
b. 0.1869
c. 43.05%
d. 0.8

6. Ten percent of the items produced by a machine are defective. Out of 15 items chosen at random,

a. what is the probability that exactly 3 items will be defective?

b. what is the probability that less than 3 items will be defective?
c. what is the probability that exactly 11 items will be non-defective?
ANS:
a. 0.1285
b. 0.816
c. 0.0428

7. The student body of a large university consists of 30% Business majors. A random sample of 20
students is selected.

a. What is the probability that among the students in the sample at least 10 are Business majors?
b. What is the probability that at least 16 are not Business majors?
c. What is the probability that exactly 10 are Business majors?
d. What is the probability that exactly 12 are not Business majors?
ANS:
a 0.0479
.
b. 0.2374
c. 0.0308
d. 0.1144

8. Shoppers enter Hamilton Place Mall at an average of 120 per hour.

a. What is the probability that exactly 5 shoppers will enter the mall between noon and 12:05
p.m.?
b. What is the probability that at least 35 shoppers will enter the mall between 5:00 and 5:10
p.m.?
ANS:
a. 0.0378
b. 0.0015
 9. A production process produces 90% non-defective parts. A sample of 10 parts from the production
process is selected.

a. What is the probability that the sample will contain 7 non-defective parts?
b. What is the probability that the sample will contain at least 4 defective parts?
c. What is the probability that the sample will contain less than 5 non-defective parts?
d. What is the probability that the sample will contain no defective parts?

ANS:
a. 0.0574
b. 0.0128
c. 0.0001
d. 0.3487

10. Fifty-five percent of the applications received for a particular credit card are accepted. Among the next
twelve applications,

a. what is the probability that all will be rejected?

b. what is the probability that all will be accepted?
c. what is the probability that exactly 4 will be accepted?
d. what is the probability that fewer than 3 will be accepted?
e. Determine the expected number and the variance of the accepted applications.
ANS:
a. 0.0001
b. 0.0008
c. 0.0762
d. 0.0079
e. 6.60; 2.9700

11. In a large corporation, 65% of the employees are male. A random sample of five employees is selected.
Use the Binomial probability tables to answer the following questions.

a. What is the probability that the sample contains exactly three male employees?
b. What is the probability that the sample contains no male employees?
c. What is the probability that the sample contains more than three female employees?
d. What is the expected number of female employees in the sample?

ANS:
a. 0.3364
b. 0.0053
c. 0.0541
d. 1.75

12. On the average, 6.7 cars arrive at the drive-up window of a bank every hour. Define the random
variable X to be the number of cars arriving in any hour.

a. What is the appropriate probability distribution for X? Explain how X satisfies the properties of
the distribution.
b. Compute the probability that exactly 5 cars will arrive in the next hour.
 c. Compute the probability that no more than 5 cars will arrive in the next hour.

ANS:
a. Poisson; it shows the probability of x occurrences of the event over a time period.
b. 0.1385
c. 0.3406

13. The average number of calls received by a switchboard in a 30-minute period is 15.

a. What is the probability that between 10:00 and 10:30 the switchboard will receive exactly 10
calls?
b. What is the probability that between 10:00 and 10:30 the switchboard will receive more than 9
calls but fewer than 15 calls?
c. What is the probability that between 10:00 and 10:30 the switchboard will receive fewer than 7
calls?
ANS:
a. 0.0486
b. 0.3958
c. 0.0075

14. An insurance company has determined that each week an average of nine claims are filed in their
Atlanta branch. What is the probability that during the next week

a. exactly seven claims will be filed?

b. no claims will be filed?
c. less than four claims will be filed?
d. at least eighteen claims will be filed?

ANS:
a. 0.1171
b. 0.0001
c. 0.0212
d. 0.0053