MATH 2526 Chapter 5

Q1: Soft-drink dispenser. The manager of a local soft-drink bottling company believes
that when a new beverage-dispensing machine is set to dispense 8 ounces, it in fact
dispenses an amount x at random anywhere between 7.5 and 8.5 ounces, inclusive.
Suppose x has a uniform probability distribution.

a. Is the amount dispensed by the beverage machine a discrete or a continuous random

variable? Explain.

b. Graph the frequency function for x, the amount of beverage the manager believes is
dispensed by the new machine when it is set to dispense 8 ounces.

c. Find the mean and standard deviation for the distribution graphed in part b, and
locate the mean and the interval μ ± 2σ on the graph.

d. Find P (x ≤ 8).

e. Find P (x < 7).

f. Find P (7.75 < x < 8.25).

g. What is the probability that each of the next two bottles filled by the new machine
will contain more than 8.25 ounces of beverage? Assume that the amount of
beverage dispensed in one bottle is independent of the amount dispensed in another
bottle.

(Q5.17)

Q2: Time delays at a bus stop. A bus is scheduled to stop at a certain bus stop every
half hour on the hour and the half hour. At the end of the day, buses still stop after
every 30 minutes, but because delays often occur earlier in the day, the bus is never
early and is likely to be late. The director of the bus line claims that the length of
time a bus is late is uniformly distributed and the maximum time that a bus is late is
20 minutes.

a. If the director’s claim is true, what is the expected number of minutes a bus will be
late?

b. If the director’s claim is true, what is the probability that the last bus on a given day
will be more than 19 minutes late?

c. If you arrive at the bus stop at the end of a day at exactly half-past the hour and
must wait more than 19 minutes for the bus, what would you conclude about the
 director’s claim? Why?

(Q5.18)

Q3: Shell lengths of sea turtles. Refer to the Aquatic Biology (Vol. 9, 2010) study of
green sea turtles inhabiting the Grand Cayman South Sound lagoon, Exercise 2.85
(p. 97). Researchers discovered that the curved carapace (shell) length of these
turtles is approximately normally distributed with mean 55.7 centimeters and
standard deviation 11.5 centimeters.

a. The minimum and maximum size limits for captured turtles in the legal marine
turtle fishery are 40 cm and 60 cm, respectively. How likely are you to capture a
green sea turtle that is considered illegal?

b. What maximum limit, L, should be set so that only 10% of the turtles captured have
shell lengths greater than L?

(Q5.42)

Q4: Load on frame structures. In the Journal of the International Association for Shell
and Spatial Structures (Apr. 2004), Japanese environmental researchers studied the
performance of truss-and-frame structures subjected to uncertain loads. The load
was assumed to have a normal distribution with a mean of 20 thousand pounds.
Also, the probability that the load is between 10 and 30 thousand pounds is .95. On
the basis of this information, find the standard deviation of the load distribution.

(Q5.52)

Q5: Characteristics of antiwar demonstrators. Refer to the American Journal of

Sociology (Jan. 2014) study of the characteristics of antiwar demonstrators in the
United States, Exercise 2.106 (p. 105). Based on data collected for over 5,000
antiwar demonstrators over a recent 3-year period, the researchers found that the
mean number of protest organizations joined by the demonstrators was .90 with a
standard deviation of 1.10 and a median of 1. Explain why x, the number of protest
organizations joined by a randomly selected demonstrator, cannot be exactly
normally distributed.

(Q5.64)
Q6: LASIK surgery complications. According to studies, 1% of all patients who
undergo laser surgery (i.e., LASIK) to correct their vision have serious post-laser
vision problems (All About Vision, 2014). In a random sample of 200,000 LASIK
patients, let x be the number who experience serious post-laser vision problems.

a. Find E(x).

b. Find Var(x).

c. Find the z-score for x = 1,928.

d. Find the approximate probability that fewer than 1,928 patients in a sample of
200,000 will experience serious post-laser vision problems

(Q5.88)

Q7: Earthquake recurrence in Iran. The Journal of Earthquake Engineering (Vol. 17,
2013) modeled the time x (in years) between major earthquakes occurring in the
Iranian Plateau. One of the models considered had the following density function:

a. Find E(x). Interpret the result.

b. Find the variance of x.

c. Use the empirical rule to estimate P ( μ−2 σ < x< μ +2 σ ).

d. Find the actual probability, P ( μ−2 σ < x< μ +2 σ ). How does the answer compare to
the result in part c?

e. The earthquake system reliability at time t, R(t), is defined as R(t) = 1 – F(t). Find
R(5) and interpret this probability.

(Q5.109)

Q8: Melanoma deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma, a form
of skin cancer, kills 15% of Americans who suffer from the disease each year.
Consider a sample of 20,000 melanoma patients.

a. What are the expected value and variance of x, the number of the 20,000 melanoma
patients who will die of the affliction this year?
b. Find the probability that x will exceed 3,100 patients per year.

c. Would you expect x, the number of patients dying of melanoma, to exceed 4,500 in
any single year? Explain.

(Q5.131)

Q9: Normal curve approximation. A. K. Shah published a simple approximation for

areas under the normal curve in The American Statistician (Feb. 1985). Shah showed
that the area A under the standard normal curve between 0 and z is

a. Use Shah’s approximation to find

i. P (0 < z < 1.22)

ii. P (0 < z < 2.5)

iii. P (z > 0.8)

iv. P (z < 1.0)

b. Find the exact probabilities in part a.

c. Shah showed that the approximation has a maximum absolute error of .0052. Verify
this for the approximations in part a.

(Q5.149)

Q10: Reliability of CD-ROMs. In Reliability Ques (Mar. 2004), the exponential

distribution was used to model the lengths of life of CD-ROM drives in a two-drive
system. The two CD-ROM drives operate independently, and at least one drive
must be operating for the system to operate successfully. Both drives have a mean
length of life of 25,000 hours.

a. The reliability R(t) of a single CD-ROM drive is the probability that the life of the
drive exceeds t hours. Give a formula for R(t).

b. Use the result from part a to find the probability that the life of the single CD-ROM
drive exceeds 8,760 hours (the number of hours of operation in a year).
c. The reliability S(t) of the two-CD-ROM-drive system is the probability that the life
of at least one drive exceeds t hours. Give a formula for S(t). [Hint: Use the rule of
complements and the fact that the two drives operate independently.]

d. Use the result from part c to find the probability that the two-drive CD-ROM
system has a life whose length exceeds 8,760 hours.

e. Compare the probabilities you found in parts b and d.

(Q5.152)

Optional questions: Q5.15, Q5.44, Q5.46, Q5.47, Q5.51, Q5.67, Q5.104, Q5.140,
Q5.134, Q5.137, Q5.144, Q5.154

Normal Distribution Table