Probability & Statistics Exercises

Probability and statistics work sheet (Assignments)

1. A committee of 6 people is to be formed from a group of 20 people. The committee needs

to have the number of women double that of the number of men. If there are 12 men in the
group, in how many ways can this committee be formed?
2. A sales firm receives, on average, 3 calls per hour on its toll-free number. For any given
hour, find the probability that it will receive the following.
a. At most 3 calls
b. At least 3 calls
c. 5 or more calls
d. find the mean and variance of the distribution
3. A couple has three children. Find each probability.
a. All boys
b. All girls or all boys
c. Exactly two boys or two girls
d. At least one child of each gender
4. Let A and B be events such that P ( A ∪ B )=0.75 , P ( A ∩ B ) =0.25∧P ( A ) =0.6.
a) What is the P(A)? ______________
b) What is the P(B)? ______________
c) What is the P(A/B)? ______________
d. Are A and B mutually exclusive? (yes/no) ______________

5. Suppose it is known that the probability of recovery for a certain disease is 0.4. If random
sample of 10 people who are stricken with the disease are selected, what is the probability
that:
(a) Exactly 5 of them will recover?_________________
(b) At most 9 of them will recover?________
6. The diameter of electric cables, say X, is assumed to be a continuous random variable with
probability density function (pdf):

{
−1
x
f ( x )= ke 3 for x> 0
o ot h erwise

a. find expected value of random variable X

b. Find V(X) c. standard deviation of X
c. Find cumulative distribution function for X

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises

7. Toss a fair coin three times. Let X is a random variable denoting the number of heads
observed from the given experiment.

a) List the sample space for the experiment?

b) Construct the probability distribution of X?
c) What is the probability of getting three heads?
d) Find mean and variance of X.

8. Define the following terms in your words.

a) Sample Space
___________________________________________________________________

b) Probability
___________________________________________________________________

c) Random Variable
________________ ___________________________________________________

9. Let S = {E1, . . . , E8}. The probability of occurring for each outcome is given in the
following table:
Outcom E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8
e
P(Ei) 1/16 1/1 1/16 1/1 2/16 2/1 2/16 2/16
6 6 6
Consider the following events
A={ E1, E2, E3}, B={ E3, E4, E5}, C={ E1, E2, E4 ,E6, E8, } and D={ E7, E8}
Calculate the following probabilities:
a) P(A); P(C); P(D);
b) P(A n D); P(AUB);
c) P(Ac); P(Ac n Bc); P(AcUBc)
d) P(A/B) (Are A and B independent?)

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises

10. List at least four advantages (reasons) for sampling and discuss the types of sampling.
11. The time taken to complete a certain standard exam for deriving license by trainees is
normally distributed with a mean of 120 minutes and a standard deviation of 10 minutes. If
we randomly select one trainee, calculate the probability that he/she will complete the exam.
a. Between 110 and 130 minutes
b. After 145 minutes
c. Before 105 minutes
12. Nine percent of all men cannot distinguish between the colors red and green. This is the type
of color blindness that causes problems with traffic signals. If six men are randomly selected
for a study of traffic signal perceptions:
a. Let X = the number of men that cannot distinguish between red and green Decide if X
is a binomial random variable or not (check the conditions for the binomial setting).
b. Write the probability distribution of X
c. Find the probability that exactly two of the six men cannot distinguish between
red and green.
d. What are the mean and standard deviation of the random variable X?

13. A firm has three telephone numbers. They all receive numbers of calls that follows Poisson
distributions, the first having a mean of 8, the second 4, and the third 3 in a period of half an
hour. Find the probability that:
a. The second and the third will receive a total of exactly 6 calls in half an hour
b. The firm will receive at least 12 calls in half an hour
c. Line one will receive at most six calls in an hour.
d. Line one will receive no calls in 15 minutes

{
−x
x e for x >0
14. A random variable X with a probability density function f ( x )=
0 else
a. Find the probability that X is between 2 and 4
b. Find the probability that the value of X exceeds 3
c. Find the expected value of X
d. Find the Variance of X
15. The manager of a bank enters a local branch at 12:30 a.m. every payday, at which time there
are always two tellers on duty. The number of customers (X) in the bank who are either at a
teller window or are waiting in a single line for the next available teller has the following
probability distribution.
x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
P(x) 0.18 0.20 0.25 0.23 0.10 0.03 0.01
a. What number of customers does the manager most often see in the bank the moment he enters?
b. What number of customers waiting in line does the manager most often see the moment he enters?
c. What is the average number of customers who are waiting in line the moment the manager enters?

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises

16. The length of human pregnancies from conception to birth varies according to a distribution
that is approximately normal with mean 266 days and standard deviation 16 days.
a. What percent of pregnancies last between 250 and 282 days?
b. We know roughly 99.7% of all pregnancies fall between how many days?
c. A pregnancy located in the 16th percentile would last how long?
d. If 15 women are surveyed, what is the probability that 5 of them have a pregnancy
that last between 250 and 266 days?
e. If a woman is claiming her pregnancy is lasting longer than 90% of pregnancies,
how long might her pregnancy last?

17. The diameter of electric cable, say X, is assumed to be a continuous random variable with
pdf:

f(x)= kx(1-x), 0≤x<1

0 Otherwise

a) Determine K
b) Find E(X)
c) Var (X)

18. An architect wants to determine the relationship between the heights (in feet) of a building
and the number of stories in the building. The data for a sample of 10 buildings in Pittsburgh
are shown.
Stories (x) 64 54 40 31 45 38 42 41 37 40
Height (y) 841 725 635 616 615 582 535 520 511 485

a) Draw the scatter diagram and comment on the type of relationship.

b) Calculate a and b then fit the regression line.
c) Predict the height of building if the number of stories (x) =44.
d) Find the correlation coefficient (r) and give your interpretation based on your result.
19. A cocoa packaging machine fills bags so that the bag contents have a standard deviation of
3.5g. Weights of contents of bags are normally distributed. If a random sample of 20 bags
gives a mean of 102.0g, construct 99% confidence interval for the mean weight of the
population (i.e., all bags)?
20. The strength of steel wire made by an existing process is normally distributed with a mean of
1250. A batch of wire is made by a new process, and a random sample consisting of 25
measurements gives an average strength of 1312 with a standard deviation of 150. Is there
evidence at the 1% level of significance that the new process gives a larger mean strength
than the old?
21. State the central limit theorem.
22. Write the four types of probability sampling techniques and discuss each of them.

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises

23. Suppose that 3% of TOSHIBA computers produced by TOSHIBA company are defective .if
a random sample of 12 computers are chosen, find the probability that
a. None of the computers selected are defective.
b. At least 3 of the computers are none defective.
c. Find the mean and variance the number of defective
computers.
24. A recent survey asked 100 people if they thought women in the armed forces should be
permitted to participate in combat. The results of the survey are shown.

Gender Yes No Total

Male 32 18 50
Female 8 42 50
Total 40 60 100

Find these probabilities.

a. The respondent answered yes, given that the respondent was a female.
b. The respondent was a male, given that the respondent answered no.

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Probability & Statistics Exercises