Stat 61 - Homework #3 (9/26/07; due 10/1/07)

1. Roll two standard dice. Let X = larger of the two numbers showing. a. Construct a table showing both the probability mass function (pmf) pX and the cumulative density function (cdf) FX. b. What is FX(7) ? (Note: pmf = what the text calls a pdf in the case of a discrete r.v.)

2. Let Y be a binomial random variable with parameters n = 6 and p = 1/2. a. What is P ( Y = 3 ) ? b. What is P ( Y > 3 ) ? [Can you do part b with zero extra work?] 3. Z is a random variable with the pmf pZ (k) = C (1/10)k if k = 1, 2, 3, 4, (or zero if n has any other value) (in particular, pZ(0) = 0) where C is a particular real number. What is C ? 4. A bar of Uranium contains n atoms. Each of them has (independent) probability p of decaying during a oneminute test. Let W be the random variable whose value is the number of atoms that decay during the oneminute test. What is P ( W = 2 ) if a. b. c. d. n = 2 and p = 0.5 n = 10 and p = 0.1 n = 100 and p = 0.01 n = 1023 and p = 10-23 (approximate if you must)

5. A discrete random variable has a Poisson distribution with parameter and is called a Poisson random variable with parameter if its pmf is given by p(k) = e- ( k / k! ) if k = 0, 1, 2, 3, or 0 for any other value of k. Show that (as we would hope) p(0) + p(1) + p(2) + = 1. (This is really a Math 25 problem. Think of a Taylor series.) 6. (from text) A continuous random variable X has the following cdf: FX (a) = 0 if a 0 a2 if 0 a 1 1 if a 1. a. What is P ( 1/2 X 3/4 ) ? b. What is the probability density function (pdf) for X ? c. Express the answer to (a) as an integral involving the pdf. (end)