1.

An electronics firm claims that the proportion of defective units from a

certain process is 5%. A buyer has a standard procedure of inspecting
15 units selected randomly from a large lot. On a particular occasion, the
buyer found 5 items defective. What is the probability of this occurrence?

This is a Binomial Distribution Problem

𝑃 (𝑥 = 5) = (15𝐶5)(0.05)5 (1 − 0.05)15−5 = 5.6188 × 10−4

2. A local drugstore owner knows that, on average, 100 people enter his store
each hour.
For both (a) and (b), we use Poisson’s Distribution
a. Find the probability that in a given 3-minute period nobody enters the
store.
𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 100 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 5 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒
Given: 𝜆 = 100 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟 = 60 𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 3 𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑡 = 3 𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑥=0

Req’d: 𝑃 (𝑥 = 0)
𝑒 −𝜆𝑡 (𝜆𝑡)𝑥 𝑒 −5 (5)0
Sol’n: 𝑃 (𝑥 = 0) = = = 6.7379 × 10−3
𝑥! 0!

b. Find the probability that in a given 3-minute period more than 5 people
enter the store.
𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 100 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 5 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒
𝜆 = 100 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟 = 60 𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 3 𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑡 = 3 𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑥>5
Req’d: 𝑃 (𝑥 > 5)
Sol’n:
5 5
𝑒 −𝜆𝑡 (𝜆𝑡)𝑥 𝑒 −5 (5)𝑥
𝑃(𝑥 > 5) = 1 − 𝑃 (𝑥 ≤ 5) = 1 − ∑ = 1−∑ = 0.3840
𝑥! 𝑥!
𝑥=0 𝑥=0

3. Thickness measurements of a coating process are made to the nearest

hundredth of a millimeter. The thickness measurements are uniformly
distributed with values 0.15, 0.16, 0.17, 0.18, and 0.19. Determine the mean
and variance of the coating thickness for this process.
This is a Discrete Uniform Distribution Problem,
Given: 𝑘 = 0.01, 𝑎 = 15, 𝑏 = 19
𝑎+𝑏 15 + 19
𝐸 (𝑥 ) = 𝑘 = 0.01 ( ) = 0.17
2 2
2 2
(𝑏 − 𝑎 + 1)2 − 1
𝜎 =𝑘 = 0.0002
12
4. To avoid detection at customs, a traveler places 6 narcotic tablets in a
bottle containing 9 vitamin tablets that are similar in appearance. If the
customs official selects 3 of the tablets at random for analysis, what is the
probability that the traveler will be arrested for illegal possession of
narcotics?
This is a Hypergeometric Distribution Problem,
The traveler will be arrested if at least 1 of the 3 tablets selected by the customs
official is a narcotic
3
(6𝐶𝑥 )[9𝐶(3 − 𝑥)] 53
𝑃 (𝑥 ≥ 1) = ∑ = = 0.8154
15𝐶3 65
𝑥=1

Alternate solution:
(6𝐶0)(9𝐶3) 53
𝑃 (𝑥 ≥ 1) = 1 − 𝑃(𝑥 = 0) = 1 − = = 0.8154
15𝐶3 65