Cambridge Senior Mathematical Methods AC/VCE Units 1 & 2

Online Teaching Suite Chapter 11 Discrete probability distributions: Chapter test 2

Multiple-choice questions
1 Consider the following table.

x 1 2 3 4 5
Pr(X = x) 2k 3k 3k k k

For the table to represent a probability function the value of k is

A 0.05
B 0.10
C 0.15
D 0.20
E 0.25

2 The probability distribution of a random variable X is shown in the table below.

x 1 2 3 4 5 6
Pr(X = x) c c 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.3

For the table to represent a probability function the value of c is

A 0.01
B 0.10
C 0.15
D 0.20
E 0.25

The following information refers to questions 3 and 4.

Suppose that the random variable X has the probability distribution given in the following
table.
x 0 1 2 3 4 5
Pr(X = x) 0.14 0.27 0.27 0.18 0.09 0.05

3 Pr(X £ 4) is equal to
A 0.05
B 0.09
C 0.85
D 0.92
E 0.95

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Cambridge Senior Mathematical Methods AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 11 Discrete probability distributions: Chapter test 2

4 Pr (2 < X £ 5) is equal to
A 0.27
B 0.32
C 0.59
D 0.44
E 0.76

5 Suppose that a fair coin is tossed twice, and X the number of heads showing noted. The
possible values that X can take are
A {H,T}
B {HH, HT, TH, TT}
C {HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT}
D {0, 1, 2}
E {1, 2}

6 Suppose that X is the number of 6s showing when a fair die is rolled four times. The
probability that exactly two 6s are observed is
1 2 5 2
A 4
C2æ ö æ ö
è6ø è6ø
1
B ´2
6

C æ1ö2
è6ø
D æ1ö2æ5ö2
è6ø è6ø
1 2 5 2
E 4æ ö æ ö
è6ø è6ø

5
7 Peter has a biased coin which has a probability of of showing a head when tossed.
8
If the coin is tossed three times, the probability of observing at least one head is
485
A
512
135
B
512
27
C
512

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Cambridge Senior Mathematical Methods AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 11 Discrete probability distributions: Chapter test 2

387
D
512
125
E
512

8 Which one of the following random variables clearly does not have a binomial
distribution?
A the number of heads observed when a fair coin is tossed 30 times
B the number of ‘doubles’ observed when two fair dice are rolled five times
C the number of times the phone rings in a 1 hour period
D the number of male children in a class
E the number of faulty batteries in a randomly selected box of 10 batteries

9 The probability that it will rain on any day in October is known to be 0.35, and whether
or not it rains is independent of whether or not it rained on any other day. The
probability that it will rain on at least one day in a randomly chosen week in October is
given by
A (0.35)7
B 1 – 7C1(0.35)1(0.65)6
7
C C1(0.35)1(0.65)6
D 1 – 7C0(0.35)0(0.65)7
E 1 – 7C0(0.35)0(0.65)7 – 7C1(0.35)1(0.65)6

10 At a certain hospital, the probability of a child being born female is 0.51. If 80 babies
are born on a certain day, the probability that more than half of these babies are female
is closest to
A 0.61
B 0.70
C 0.39
D 0.47
E 0.53

11 Josie is doing a multiple-choice test. There are nine questions, each with four options.
If she guesses the answer to each question, the probability that she selects the correct
answer for at least five questions is closest to
A 0.0389
B 0.0100

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Cambridge Senior Mathematical Methods AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 11 Discrete probability distributions: Chapter test 2
C 0.0196
D 0.0031
E 0.0489

Questions 13–15 refer to the following information.

The probability of winning a single game of chance is 0.1, and whether or not the game is
won is independent of the outcome of any other game.

13 If Fiona plays a sequence of eight games, then the probability of her winning exactly
one game is closest to
A 0.5695
B 0.4305
C 0.1250
D 0.8131
E 0.3826

Short-answer questions (technology-free)

1 For the probability distribution given in the table, calculate:

x 0 1 2 3 4
Pr(X = x) 0.02 0.12 0.35 0.24 0.27

a Pr(X £ 1) b Pr(X ³ 3) c Pr(2 £ X £ 4)

2 Consider the following function.

x –2 –1 0 1 2
Pr(X = x) 2k 0.1 2k 0.3 2k

For what value of k is this a probability distribution?

3 Amy plays the following game with her brother Will. A jar contains two red marbles,
five green marbles and eight white marbles. One marble is drawn at random from the
jar. If the marble is red, Amy wins $5.00. If it is white, Will wins $3.00, and if it is
green neither of them win anything. If X is the amount of money Amy wins, give the
probability distribution of X.

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Cambridge Senior Mathematical Methods AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 11 Discrete probability distributions: Chapter test 2

5 For a binomial distribution with n = 3 and p = 0.3, find the probability of:
a three successes
b two or more successes
c at least one success.

6 Suppose that 10% of the letters delivered to Brett’s house are for him, and that the rest
are for other members of his family. What is the probability that if three letters are
delivered one day at least one will be for him?

7 According to a survey 30% of households have a pet dog. If four households are
selected at random, what is the probability that no more than two of them have a pet
dog?

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Cambridge Senior Mathematical Methods AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 11 Discrete probability distributions: Chapter test 2

Answers
Multiple-choice questions

1 B 2 C 3 E 4 B 5 D

6 A 7 A 8 C 9 D 10 E

11 E 12 A 13 E 14 B 15 E

Short-answer questions (technology-free)

1 a 0.14 b 0.51 c 0.86

2 0.1

x 5 0 –3
Pr(X = x) 2 5 8
15 15 15

x 0 1 2
Pr(X = x) 2 4 1
7 7 7

5 a 0.027 b 0.216 c 0.657

6 0.271

7 0.9163

© Evans, Wallace, Lipson, Greenwood 2016 6