QUESTIONS – MI2026-2021.

Question 1.

Two cards are drawn at random, successively without replacement, from a well-shuffled
standard deck of 52 playing cards. Determine the number of outcomes in the sample space
of this experiment.
Question 2.

Find the probability of drawing a black or red marble when a single marble is drawn at
random from an urn containing 7 black marbles, 6 green marbles, and 10 red marbles.
(Assume the marbles are identical except for color.)
Question 3.

Suppose that A, B, and C are three independent events such that P (A) = 1/4, P (B) = 1/3,
and P (C) = 1/2. What is the probability that none of these three events will occur?
Question 4.

If the probability that student A will fail a certain statistics examination is 0.5, the proba-
bility that student B will fail the examination is 0.2, and the probability that both student
A and B will fail the examination is 0.1, what is the probability that at least one of these
two students will fail the examination?
Question 5.

Three cards are drawn in succession, without replacement, from an ordinary deck of playing
cards. Find the probability that the event A1 A2 A3 occurs, where A1 is the event that the
first card is a red ace, A2 is the event that the second card is a 10 or a jack, and A3 is the
event that the third card is greater than 3 but less than 7.
Question 6.
2

In which of the following circumstances are the events A and B independent?

1 1 1
A. P (A) = , P (B) = , P (AB) =
2 2 4
B. P (A) = 0.7, P (A|B) = 0.9
1 21 3
C. P (A) = , P (B) = , P (AB) =
2 55 22
D. P (A) = 0.35, P (B) = 0.63, P (AB) = 0.32

Question 7.

There is a chance that a bit transmitted through a digital transmission channel is received
in error. Let X equal the number of bits in error in the next four bits transmitted. The
probability distribution of X is

X 0 1 2 3 4
P 0.6561 0.2916 0.0486 0.0036 0.0001

Find P (X ≤ 3)?

Question 8.

The probability distribution of X is

X 1 2 3
P 0.8 0.16 0.04

What is the cumulative distribution function FX (x)?

Question 9.

The cumulative distribution function of random variable X is


0,

 x ≤ −1,
FX (x) = (x + 1)/2, −1 < x ≤ 1,


1, x > 1.

What is the probability density function fX (x)?

Question 10.
 3

If 10 percent of the balls in a certain box are red, and if 20 balls are selected from the box at
random, with replacement, find the probability that exactly two red balls will be obtained.

Question 11.

In a survey of 15 manufacturing firms, the number of firms that use LIFO is a Binomial
random variable X with p = 0.2. What are the mean and the standard deviation of X?

Question 12.

The number of prescriptions for a certain medication that is written between 9:00-9:30 by a
physician is a Poisson random variable, P(λ), with λ = 2.5. What is the expected number
of prescriptions written by the physician during this period? What is the variance of the
number of prescriptions?

Question 13.

Suppose that in a certain drug, the concentration of a particular chemical is a random

variable with a continuous distribution for which the probability density function g is as
follows:
 3 x2 , if x ∈ [0; 2],


g(x) = 8
0, if x ∈
/ [0; 2].
Suppose the concentrations X and Y of the chemical in two separate batches of the drug are
independent random variables for each of the probability density function is g. Determine
the joint probability density function of X and Y .

Question 14.

In a certain city, three newspapers A, B, and C are published. Suppose that 60 percent of
the families in the city subscribe to newspaper A, 40 percent of the families subscribe to
newspaper B, and 30 percent of the families subscribe to newspaper C. Suppose also that
20 percent of the families subscribe to both A and B, 10 percent subscribe to both A and
C, 20 percent subscribe to both B and C, and 5 percent subscribe to all three newspapers
A, B, and C. What percentage of the families in the city subscribe to at least one of the
three newspapers?

Question 15.
4

In a certain assembly plant, three machines, B1, B2, and B3, make 30%, 45%, and 25%,
respectively, of the products. It is known from past experience that 2%, 3%, and 2% of the
products made by each machine, respectively, are defective. Now, suppose that a finished
product is randomly selected. (a) What is the probability that it is defective? (b) If a product
was chosen randomly and found to be defective, what is the probability that it was made
by machine B3?

Question 16.

Four microchips are to be placed in a computer. Two of the four chips are randomly selected
for inspection before the assembly of the computer. Let X denote the number of defective
chips found among the two chips inspected. Find the probability distribution of X if two of
the microchips were defective.

Question 17.

A certain electric system contains 10 components. Suppose that the probability that each
individual component will fail is 0.2 and that the components fail independently of each
other. Given that at least one of the components has failed, what is the probability that at
least two of the components have failed?

Question 18.

An urn contains 2 black and 5 brown balls. A ball is selected at random. If the ball drawn
is brown, it is replaced and 2 additional brown balls are also put into the urn. If the ball
drawn is black, it is not replaced in the urn and no additional balls are added. A ball is
then drawn from the urn the second time. What is the probability that the ball selected at
the second stage is brown?

Question 19.

Let X be a continuous random variable with probability density function defined by

(
kx, if 0 < x < 1,
fX (x) =
0, otherwise.

(a) What value must k take for this to be a valid density? (b) Find p := P (X = 0.5).

Question 20.
 5

The diameter of ball bearings produced in a manufacturing process can be explained using
a uniform distribution over the interval 4.5 to 6.5 millimeters. What is the probability that
a randomly selected ball bearing has a diameter greater than 5.85 millimeters?

Question 21.

Ba plays a game, which assigns a number that is uniformly distributed between 0 and 5. If
the game assigns a number less than or equal to k, then he loses 1 dollar, on the other hand,
if the game assigns a number larger than k, then he will gain 1 dollar. Find the variance of
the profit.

Question 22.

Let X be a random variable denoting the proportion of students in a class who get a
grade lower than C. Suppose X is a random variable with the following probability density
function: (
6x(1 − x), if x ∈ [0; 1],
fX (x) =
0, if x ∈
/ [0; 1].
A class is assumed to be unsuccessful if the proportion of students with a grade lower than
C is greater than 0.5. Assume 5 classes take the course and their successes are independent
of each other. What is the probability that at least two of the classes will be unsuccessful?