5-1

Use the probability distribution for the random variable x to answer the questions in
Exercises 17-21.

x 0 1 2 3 4
P(x) .1 .3 .3 ? .1

17. Find p(3).

18. Construct a probability histogram for p(x).
19. Calculate the population mean, variance, and standard deviation.
20. What is the probability that x is greater than 2?
21. What is the probability that x is 3 or less?

34. The maximum patent life for a new drug is 17 years. Subtracting the length of
time required by the FDA for testing and approval of the drug provides the actual
patent life of the drug-that is, the length of time that a company has to recover
research and development costs and make a profit. Suppose the distribution of the
lengths of patent life for new drugs is as shown here:

Years, 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
x
p(x) .03 .05 .07 .10 .14 .20 .18 .12 .07 .03 .01

a. Find the expected number of years of patent life for a new drug.
b. Find the standard deviation of x.
c. Find the probability that x falls into the intervalμ ±2 σ .
5-2

43. Suppose the four engines of a commercial aircraft are arranged to operate
independently and that the probability of in-flight failure of a single engine is .01.
What is the probability of the following events on a given flight?

a. No failures are observed.

b. No more than one failure is observed.

44. Suppose that 50% of all young adults prefer McDonald's to Burger King when
asked to state a preference. A group of 10 young adults were randomly selected and
their preferences recorded.

a. What is the probability that more than 6 preferred McDonald's?

b. What is the probability that between 4 and 6 (inclusive) preferred McDonald's?
c. What is the probability that between 4 and 6 (inclusive) preferred Burger King?

5-3

Let x be a Poisson random variable. In Exercises 6-8, find the probabilities for x using
Table 2 in Appendix I.
6. µ= 3; P(x ≦ 3), P(x>3), P(x=3), and P(3 ≦ X ≦ 5).
7. µ =0.8; P(x = 0), P(x ≦ 2), P(x>2), and P(2 ≦ x ≦ 4).
8. u = 2.5; P(x≧5), P(x<6), P(x=2), and P(1≦x≦4).

17. The probability that a person will develop the flu after getting a flu shot is 0.01. In
a random sample of 200 people in a community who got a flu shot, what is the
probability that 5 or more of the 200 people will get the flu? Use the Poisson
approximation to binomial probabilities to find your answer.