Math 142 (Statistics) Name:

Fall 2023 Student ID:

Practice Midterm 2
10/19/23
Time Limit: 3 hours

This exam contains 8 pages (including this cover page) and 7 questions. Please verify
that you have all 8 pages. Do not begin your exam until I say.

No cheating.

Grade Table
Question Points Score
1 10
2 10
3 10
4 10
5 10
6 10
7 10
Total: 70
Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 2 of 8 10/19/23

1. (10 points) Suppose that you are offered the following “deal.”

You roll a 6-sided die.

• If you roll a six, you win $10.

• If you roll a four or five, you win $5.
• If you roll a one, two, or three, you pay $6.

(a) (1 point) What are you ultimately interested in here (the value of the roll or the
money you win)?

(b) (1 point) In words, define the Random Variable X.

(c) (2 points) List the values that X may take on.

(d) (2 points) Construct a PDF table.

(e) (2 points) Over the long run of playing this game, what are your expected average
winnings per game?

(f) (2 points) Based on numerical values, should you take the deal? Explain your
decision in complete sentences.
Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 3 of 8 10/19/23

2. (10 points) The systolic blood pressure (given in millimeters) of males has an approxi-
mately normal distribution with mean µ = 125 and standard deviation σ = 14.
(a) (2 points) Calculate the z-scores for the male systolic blood pressures 100 and 150
millimeters.

(b) (2 points) If a male friend of yours said he thought his systolic blood pressure was
2.5 standard deviations below the mean, but that he believed his blood pressure
was between 100 and 150 millimeters, what would you say to him?

(c) (2 points) Kyle’s doctor told him that the z-score for his systolic blood pressure
is 1.75. Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct? Circle all correct
answers.
(i) Kyle’s systolic blood pressure is 175.
(ii) Kyle’s systolic blood pressure is 1.75 times the average blood pressure of men
his age.
(iii) Kyle’s systolic blood pressure is 1.75 above the average systolic blood pressure
of men his age.
(iv) Kyles’s systolic blood pressure is 1.75 standard deviations above the average
systolic blood pressure for men.

(d) (2 points) Calculate Kyle’s blood pressure.

(e) (2 points) What is the probability that a male has blood pressure between 105 and
129 millimeters? In other words, find P (105 < x < 129).
Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 4 of 8 10/19/23

3. (10 points) Consider a continuous random variable X ∼ N (99, 1).

(a) (1 point) What is P (X = 100)?

(b) (2 points) Is it true that P (X < 99) = P (X > 99)? Why?

(c) (2 points) What is P (98 < X < 99)?

(d) (2 points) What is P (98 < X < 100)?

(e) (2 points) What is P (96 < X < 102)?

(f) (1 point) What is P (101 < X)?

Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 5 of 8 10/19/23

4. (10 points) The percent of fat calories that a person in America consumes each day is
normally distributed with a mean of about 36 and a standard deviation of about ten.
(a) (1 point) Suppose that 16 individuals are randomly chosen. Let X = average per-
cent of fat calories consumed for 25 individuals. Fill in the blanks:

X ∼ N( , )

(b) (2 points) For the group of 16, find the probability that the average percent of fat
calories consumed is less than five.

(c) (1 point) Now suppose that 25 individuals are randomly chosen. Let X = average
percent of fat calories consumed for 25 individuals. Fill in the blanks:

X ∼ N( , )

(d) (2 points) For the group of 25, find the probability that the average percent of fat
calories consumed is more than five.

(e) (4 points) Draw a sketch of the two distributions from parts (a) and (c) and com-
pare them. As the number of people sampled increases, what is true about the
probability mass near the population mean? What about the tails of this sample
mean distribution? What Theorem is this trend referring to?
Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 6 of 8 10/19/23

5. (10 points) A sample of 45 adult bearded dragons were selected. Assume that the pop-
ulation distribution of bearded dragon weights is normal. The weight of each bearded
dragon was then recorded. The mean weight of the sampled reptiles was 0.8 pounds
with a standard deviation of 0.09 pounds. You will be creating confidence intervals with
this information. For reference, below is a picture of Eli’s bearded dragon. Cute, right?

(a) (2 points) Which distribution should you use for this problem? Explain your choice.

(b) (3 points) Construct a 60% confidence interval for the population mean weight of
bearded dragons.

(c) (1 point) What is the Error Bound in the confidence interval you found in part (b)?

(d) (2 points) Construct a 90% confidence interval for the population mean weight of
bearded dragons.

(e) (2 points) Suppose you now also happened to know that the population standard
deviation was 0.11 ounces. Would there be another reasonable choice of distribution
to use? If so, what distribution is that?
Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 7 of 8 10/19/23

6. (10 points) Suppose Apple conducted a survey of 325 people in the US and found that
250 of those people are iPhone users. You will be creating confidence intervals with this
information.
(a) (2 points) Which distribution should you use for this problem? Explain your choice.

(b) (4 points) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population proportion of
iPhone users.

(c) (1 point) What is the Error Bound in the confidence interval you found in part (b)?

(d) (1 point) Interpret the confidence interval you found in (b).

(e) (2 points) If Apple conducted a survey with double the sample size but the same
sample proportion, would a 95% confidence interval for the population proportion
be wider, or narrower? Why?
Math 142 (Statistics) Practice Midterm 2 - Page 8 of 8 10/19/23

7. (10 points) Announcements for 84 upcoming engineering conferences were randomly

picked from a stack of IEEE Spectrum magazines. The mean length of the confer-
ences was 3.94 days, with a standard deviation of 1.28 days. Assume the underlying
population is normal.
(a) (2 points) Which distribution should you use for this problem? Explain your choice.

(b) (3 points) Construct an 85% confidence interval for the population mean length of
engineering conferences.

(c) (1 point) What is the Error Bound in the confidence interval you found in part (b)?

(d) (3 points) Construct a 72% confidence interval for the population mean length of
engineering conferences.

(e) (1 point) What is the Error Bound in the confidence interval you found in part (b)?