Unit IV: Probability Distribution (10 Marks)

Probability Distribution:
∑ P=1 Mean ( μ )=Expectation E ( X )=∑ PX Variance ( σ 2 )=∑ P X 2−[ ∑ PX ]
2

Binomial Distribution:
n x n− x
(i) Probability Formula P ( x )=❑C x p q ; where x=0 , 1 ,2 , 3 , … , n
(ii) Mean μ=np
(iii) Variance σ 2=npq
(iv) Standard Deviation σ =√ npq

Poisson Distribution:
−λ x
e ∙λ
(i) Probability Formula P ( x )= ; where x=0 , 1 , 2, 3 , … , ∞
x!
(ii) Mean μ=λ
(iii) 2
Variance σ =λ
(iv) Mean and Variance are equal.
(v) Standard Deviation σ =√ λ

Normal Distribution:
(i) The normal distribution curve is symmetrical (Bell-shaped) about Mean
( X =μ )
(ii) In normal distribution Mean=Median=Mode
(iii) X is normal variable and Z is standard normal variable
(iv) Area under the normal curve is 1 (or 100%) (Reason: Total Probability
is 1)
X−μ
(v) Conversion formula for normal to standard normal is Z= σ
(vi) For Standard Normal, Mean=0 and SD=1

Practice Questions
1. If random variable X represents the number of heads when a coin is tossed twice then
E(X) is:
1 1
(a) (b) 0 (c) (d) 1
4 2
2. A player rolls one fair die. If the die shows an odd number, the player wins the value that
appears on the die, else loses half the value that appears on it. The expected gain of the
player is:
 −1 1
(a) (b) 0 (c) (d) 1
2 2
3. One hundred identical coins each with probability p showing up heads are tossed once. If
0< p< 1 and probability of heads on 50 coins is equal to that of heads showing on 51 coins,
then value of p is:
1 49 50 51
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 101 101 101
4
4. The probability that a bomb dropped from a plane strikes the target is . What is the
5
probability that out of 6 bombs dropped, exactly 2 bombs strike the target?

() ()
5 5
4 4 48 64
(a) 2 (b) 1−2 (c) 5 (d) 6
5 5 5 5
5. In a large consignment of electric bulbs 5% of a batch of batteries are defective. A random
sample of 80 is taken for inspection with replacement. Then the Variance of the number of
defectives in sample, is:
18 19
(a) (b) (c) 4.555 (d) 8
5 5
6. If for a Poisson variate X , P ( X=k )=P( X=k +1) , then the variance of X is:
(a) k −1 (b) k (c) k +1 (d) k + 2
7. In a binomial distribution, n=200 and p=0.04. Taking Poisson distribution as an
approximation to the binomial distribution:
Assertion (A): Mean of Poisson distribution is 8.
512
Reason (R): P ( X=4 )= 8
3e
8. Find the following statements are true or false:
(i) For a Binomial distribution mean is always greater than variance. True ( Since np>npq )
(ii) For a Poisson distribution mean and variance are always equal. True ( Since μ=σ 2=λ )
9. Let X be a discrete random variable whose probability distribution is given below:
X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
P( X) 0 2 k 2 k 3 k k
2
2k 2
7k 2
2 k
(i) Find the value of k . (ii) Find Expected Value (or Mean). (iii) Find Variance.
10. Let X denotes the number of hours a Class 12 student studies during a randomly selected
school day. The probability that X can take the values x i, for an unknown constant ‘ k ’ :
0.1 if x i=0
P ( X =xi ) = k x i if x i=1∨2
k (5−x i) if x i=3∨4
(i) Find the value of k .
(ii) Determine the probability that the student studied for at least 2 hours.
(iii) Determine the probability that the student studied for at most 2 hours.
11. An octagonal prism is a three-dimensional polyhedron bounded by two octagonal bases
and eight rectangular side faces. It has 24 edges and 16 vertices.

The prism is rolled along the rectangular faces and number on the bottom face (touching
 the ground) is noted. Let X denotes the number obtained on the bottom face and the
following table gives the probability distribution of X .
X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
P( X) p 2 p 2 p p 2 p p
2
2p
2 2
7 p +p
On the above context, answer the following questions.
(i) Find the value of p. (ii) Find the mean, E( X ). (iii) Find Variance.
12. If a die is thrown 6 times and getting even number is success, then calculate probability of
getting exactly 2 success.

13. The incidence of occupational disease in an industry is such that the workers have a 20%
chance of suffering from it. What is the probability that out of six workers 4 or more will
catch the disease?
14. Find the mean and variance from Binomial distribution B(4, 1/3).
15. In Binomial distribution, mean and standard deviation are 12 and 2 respectively. Find
P( X ≥ 2).
16. An unbiased die is thrown again and again until three sixes are obtained. Find the
probability of obtaining a third six in the sixth throw of the die.
(Hint: Two success in first five throw using Binomial and third success in sixth throw)
17. How many times Sunil toss a fair coin so that probability of getting at least one head is
more than 90%.
18. In a precision bombing attack, there is a 50% chance that any one bomb will strike the
target. Two direct hits are required to destroy the target completely. How many bombs
must be dropped to give a 99% chance or better, of completely destroying the target?
(Hint: Probability of at least two success is at least 99%)
19. If the probability of success in a single trial is 0.01, how many minimum number of
1
Bernoulli trials must be performed in order that the probability of at least one success is
2
or more?
[Use log 10 2=0.3010 , log 10 99=1.9956]
20. If a random variable X has the Poisson distribution with mean 2, then find P( X> 1.5)
21. If the standard deviation of a Poisson variable X is √ 3, then find P ( X >0 ). (Use e−3=0.05¿
22. If X is a Poisson variate such that P ( X=0 )=P ( X =1 )=a , then show that a=e−1.
23. If X is a Poisson variable such that P( X=1)=2 P (X =2) , then find P( X=0).
24. If X is a Poisson variate such that P( X=2)=9 P( X=4 )+ 90 P(X =6), then find the mean of X .
∞
e− λ ∙ λk
25. For a Poisson distribution with mean λ , find ∑ (Hint: It is P(0)+P(1)+P(2)+…upto ∞
k=0 k!
=1)
26. It is given that 2% of screws manufactured by a company are defective. Using Poisson
distribution, find the probability that a packet of 100 screws contains no defective screw.
(Use e−2=0.14 ¿
27. On doing the proof reading of a book on an average 4 errors in 10 pages were detected.
Using Poisson’s distribution find the number of pages having (i) no error and (ii) one error
in 1000 pages of first printed edition of the book. (Use e−0.4 =0.6703 ¿
28. It is known that 3% of plastic buckets manufactured in a factory are defective. Using the

(Use 𝑒−3=0.049)
Poisson distribution on a sample of 100 buckets, find the probability of:
(i) Zero defective buckets (ii) At most one bucket is defective
29. A river near a small town floods and overflows twice in every 10 years on an average.
Assuming that the Poisson distribution is appropriate, what is the mean expectation? Also,
calculate the probability of 3 or less overflows and floods in a 10-year interval. (Use
−2
e =0.13534 )
30. A traffic engineer records the number of bicycle riders that use a particular cycle track. He
records that an average of 3.2 bicycle riders use the cycle track every hour. Given that the
number of bicycles that use the cycle track follow a Poisson distribution, what is the

mean expectation and variance for the random variable. (Given 𝑒−3.2=0.041)
probability that 2 or less bicycle riders will use the cycle track within an hour? Also find the

31. Find the data point of a normal variable with mean 12, standard deviation 4 and Z-score 5.
32. If X is a normal variate with mean ( μ )=70 and standard deviation( σ )=5, then find P( X> 75).
[Use P ( 0< Z< 1 )=0.3413 ]
33. The lifetime of an item produced by a machine has a normal distribution with mean 12
months and standard deviation of 2 months. Find the probability of an item produced by
this machine will last
5
(i) less than 7 months (ii) between 7 and 14 months. [Use P(Z < )=0.9938 , P ( Z <1 )=0.8413]
2
34. 2000 students appeared in an examination. Distribution of marks is assumed to be normal
with mean 30 and standard deviation 6.25. How many students are expected to get marks
(i) between 20 and 40 and (ii) less than 25 [ Use P ( 0 ≤ Z ≤ 1.6 ) =0.4452 , P ( 0 ≤ Z ≤0.8 )=0.2881 ]

35. Given that the scores of a set of candidates on an IQ test are normally distributed. If the
IQ test has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 10, determine the probability that a
candidate who takes the test will score between 90 and 110. [ Use P ( Z <1 )=0.8413,
P ( Z <−1 ) =0.1587]
36. An aptitude test for selecting officers in a bank is conducted on 1000 candidates. The
mean score obtained is 42 and the standard deviation of score is 24. Assuming normal
distribution for the scores, find :
(i) the number of candidates whose scores exceed 60;
(ii) the number of candidates whose scores lie between 30 and 60.
[Use P ( 0 ≤ Z ≤ 0.75 )=0.2734 , P ( 0 ≤ Z ≤ 0.5 )=0.1915]
All the Best