Probability & Statistics Exercises

Addis Ababa Science and Technology University

Probability and Statistics

Problem Sets

Exercises1
1. Define statistics in plural and singular sense
2. Explain the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using
example.
3. Explain the meaning of the following terms and give examples
a. Quantitative variable c. Qualitative variable
b. Discrete variable d. Continuous variable
4. Identify the followings as quantitative and qualitative variables and list their possible
values.
a. Number of persons in a family b. Marital status of people
c. Length of frog jump
5. Give some examples of discrete and continuous variables.
6. Clearly identify the difference between population and sample using example.
7. Differentiate the terms statistic and parameter.
8. Briefly explain the application of statistics in different sectors.
9. For each of the variables, indicate whether it is quantitative or qualitative and specify
the scale of measurement that is employed when taking measurement on each
a. Preference for food
b. Weight of babies born in a hospital during a year
c. Sex of babies born in a hospital during a year.
d. Under-arm temperature of day-old infants born in a hospital in degree Celsius.
10. Distinguish between primary and secondary data.
11. What are the various methods of collecting primary data?
12. Define secondary data. What are their sources?
13. In a biology experiment the lengths of 25 worms, measured to the nearest 0.1cm, were:
9.5 8.1 5.1 6.6 9.3 9.1 6.5 5.0 6.9 7.6 9.3 8.3 6.0
6.2 7.4 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.0 7.8 5.4 9.9 6.3 7.5 8.4
Construct a frequency distribution for the data by using Sturgess’ rule for the number of
classes. Lastely interpret your rsults using suitable graph
14. The following are the scores of 32 students who took a statistics test:
55 70 80 75 90 80 60 100 95 70 75 85 80 80 70 95
100 80 85 70 85 90 80 75 85 70 90 60 80 70 85 80
Organize this data set using an absolute frequency distribution consisting of 7 classes. Start
the first class with the minimum value in the data set. Construct also the relative
frequency distribution, less than cumulative frequency distribution, and the more than
frequency distribution. What do you think about the typical score of these students? How
many students score below the lower limit of the third class?

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15. The following table gives the number of deaths in a certain country in 1987 due to
accidents for individuals in various classifications.
Classification Number of deaths
Pedestrians 1699
Bicyclists 280
Motorcyclists 650
Automobile drivers 1327
Represent the data using both a bar chart and a pie chart. Which of the charts is more
Informative?
16. The following data set represents the scores on intelligence quotient (IQ) examinations
of 40 sixth-grade students at a particular school:
114 122 103 118 99 105 134 125 117 106 109 104 111 127 133 111 117
103 120 98 100 130 141 119 128 106 109 115 113 121 100 130 125 117
119 113 104 108 110 102
a) Present this data set using histogram.
b) Which class interval contains the greatest number of data values?
c) Is there a roughly equal number of data in class interval?

17. The following data represent the blood cholesterol levels of 40 first-year students at a
particular college. Find the mean, the median and the modal cholesterol levels of these
students.
Cholesterol level Number of students
170-180 3
180-190 7
190-200 13
200-210 8
210-220 5
220-230 4

18. For the frequency distribution given below the median is 46.
Class limit 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 Total
frequency 12 30 F1 65 F2 25 18 299

Find the missing frequencies

19. If the geometric mean of two positive numbers is 16 and their arithmetic mean is 20,
then find the numbers.

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises

Tutorial
Exercises2
1. Write the following in a compact form
a) ( x 1 + x2 + x 3 +…+ x 10 )
b) ( y 5 + y 6 + y 7 − y 1− y 2− y 3− y 4 )
c) x 1 f 1+ x2 f 2+ x 3 f 3 +…+ x 9 f 9
d) 3 x 1+3 x 2 +3 x3 +3 x 4 + 4 x 5+ 4 x 6 +4 x7
2. Given x1=3, x2=4, x3=7, x4=7, x5=10; f1=4, f2=6, f3=7, f4=3, x5=1
Find
5
i. ∑ xi
i=1
5
ii. ∑ fi
i=1
5
iii. ∑ xi f i
i=1
n
iv. ∑ x 2i f i
i=1

3. Prove the following identities

n n
i. ∑ (x i¿ −k )=∑ x i−nk ¿
i=1 i=1
n n n
ii. ∑ (x ¿¿ i−k ) =¿ ∑ x i −2 k ∑ x i+ n k ¿ ¿
2 2 2

i=1 i=1 i=1

4. The following data represent the scores on a statistics examination of a sample of

students:87 63 91 72 80 77 93 69 75 79 70 83 94 75 88. What is the sample
mean?
5. Lensa wanted to find her average in stat course, and the exams are weighted as follows:
Item First test Second test Third test Final test Assignments

Mark 100 100 100 100 50

Percent 15% 20% 25% 30% 10%
She scored 90, 71, 87, 77, and 40 on first test, second test, third test, final exam, and
the assignments, respectively. Determine her average result in the course.
6. The following data is obtained in relation to the growth of certain type of bacteria on
agar in a biological laboratory taken at equal intervals of time. Determine the average
growth rate of this bacterium?
Time 1:00 pm 2:00 pm 3:00 4:00 pm 5:00 pm
pm
Number of 10 105 1007 10010 100157
bacteria

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7. A certain country’s economy grows at the rate of 3.8 percent in the year 1991, 3.5
percent in the year 1992, 3.2 percent in the year1993, 2.8 percent in the year 1994.
What is the average rate of growth of this country’s economy?
8. An agriculture farm sells grab bags of flower bulbs. The bags are sold by weight; thus
the number of bulbs in each bag can vary depending on the varieties included. Below is
the number of bulbs in each of the 20 bags sampled:
21 33 37 56 47 25 33 32 47 34 36 23 26 33 37 37 43 45
What are the mean, median, and modal numbers of bulbs per bag?
9. Twenty seeds were sown in each of 100 trays and the number of seeds that germinated
was recorded.
Number of seeds germinating per tray 20 19 18 17 1 15 14 13
6
Number of trays 13 21 27 16 9 7 5 2
Find the mean, the median and the mode for the number of seeds that germinate per
tray.
10. How are averages useful as a descriptive measure?
11. The following data represent the blood cholesterol levels of 40 first-year students at a
particular college. Find the mean, the median and the modal cholesterol levels of these
students.
Cholesterol level Number of students
170-180 3
180-190 7
190-200 13
200-210 8
210-220 5
220-230 4

16 Consider the data taken from a study that examines the response to ozone and sulfur
dioxide among adolescents suffering from asthma. The following are measurements of
forced expiratory volume (liters) for 10 subjects: 3.50 2.60 2.75 2.82 4.05 2.25
2.68 3.00 4.02 2.85 Calculate the mean and median of the data.
17 Explain how measures of central tendency and measures of variation are
complementary to each other in the context of data analysis.
18 Distinguish between absolute and relative measures of variation.
19 Critically examine the different measures of variation.
20 When do we prefer coefficient of variation over standard deviation?
21 What information do we get from skewness and kurtosis?
22 Discuss the importance of Z score.
23 The percentage of ideal body weight was determined for 18 randomly selected insulin-
dependent diabetics. The outcomes (%) are

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107 119 99 114 120 104 124 88 114 116 101 121 152 125 100 114 95 117
Calculate the range, variance, and standard deviation, coefficient of variation and
moment coefficient of kurtosis.
24 Refer the data in question number 23, calculate Pearsonian coefficient of skewness.

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Exercises3
1. A coin is tossed twice. A sample space S can be described in an obvious manner as
{HH, HT, TH, TT}.
a) What are the sample points and the elementary events of the sample space?
b) What is the event that corresponds to the statement “at least one tail is
obtained”?
c) What event corresponds to “at most one tail is obtained”?
2. An experiment consists of tossing 3 fair coins.
i) List all the elements in the sample space.
ii) Describe the following events:
A = observe exactly two heads
B = observe at most one tail
C = observe at least two heads
3. A box contains three marbles: one red, one green, and one blue. Consider an experiment
that consists of taking one marble from the box then replacing it in the box and drawing
a second marble from the box.
a) What is the sample space?
b) What event corresponds to “first draw is blue”?
c) What event corresponds to “at least one marble is green”?
4. There are 5 routes available between A and B; 4 between B and C; and 7 between C and
D. What is the total number of available routes between A and D, if you go through
points B and C?
5. A telephone number is a 7-digit sequence, but the first digit has to be different from 0 or
1. How many distinct telephone numbers are there?
6. How many number of words (letter strings) that consist of four distinct letters using
Latin alphabet can be formed?
7. A college planning committee consisting of 3 freshmen, 4 sophomores, 5 juniors, and 2
seniors. A subcommittee of 4, consisting of 1 individual from each class, is to be chosen.
How many different subcommittees are possible?
8. Let S = {E1, . . ., E8}. The probability of occurring for each outcome is given in the
following table:
Outcom E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8
e
P(Ei) 1/16 1/1 1/16 1/1 2/16 2/1 2/16 2/16
6 6 6
Consider the following events
A={ E1, E2, E3}, B={ E3, E4, E5}, C={ E1, E2, E4 ,E6, E8, } and D={ E7, E8}
Calculate the following probabilities:
a) P(A); P(C); P(D);
b) P(A n D); P(AUB);
c) P(Ac); P(Ac n Bc); P(AcUBc)
d) P(A/B) (Are A and B independent?)
9. Let E, F, G be three events. Show the following events using vein diagrams:
a) only F occurs, d) at least two events occur,
b) both E and F but not G occur, e) all three events occur,
c) at least one event occurs, f) none occurs,

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g) at most one occurs,

h) at most two occur.

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10. If the occurrence of B makes Amore likely, does the occurrence of A make B more likely?
11. Assume that each child who is born is equally likely to be a boy or a girl.
If a family has two children, what is the probability that both are girls given that (a) the eldest is a
girl, (b) at least one is a girl?
12. Let A and B be two events. Suppose that P(A) = 0.4, P(B) = 0.5, and
P(A ∩ B) = 0.1. Find the probability that A or B will occur, but not both.
13. How many different letter sequences can be obtained by rearranging the letters in the word TATTOO?
14. How many natural numbers are there under 1000 whose digits are odd?
15. In how many ways can a committee of 4 be formed from 10 men and 12 women if it is to have
a) 2 men and 2 women?
b) 1 man and 3 women?
c) 4 men?
d) 4 people regardless of sex?
16. In how many ways can 5 people be seated on 5 chairs around a round table?
17. Let A and B be two events in a sample space for which P(A) = 2/3,
P(B) = 1/6, and P(A ∩ B) = 1/9. What is P(A U B)?
18. Let E and F be two events for which one knows that the probability that
at least one of them occurs is 3/4. What is the probability that neither E nor
F occurs?
19. A random sample of size 10 is chosen from a population of 100 without replacement. If A and B are
two individuals among the 100, what is theprobability that the sample will contain
(a) both? (b) neither?
(c) A? (d) eitherA or B, but not both?
20. Suppose events D1and D2represent disasters with P(D1) = 0.003and P(D2) = 0.004. If the two events
are independent , what is the probabilitythat at least one of the disasters will occur?
21. Four horses (A, B, C, and D) have raced many times. It is estimated that A wins 30 percent of the
time, B 40 percent of the time, C 20 percent of the time, and D 10 percent of the time. The game
allows only one of the horses to be a winner in any race. If these horses will compete in a race,
a) what is the probability that A will win?
b) what is the probability that A and B will win?
c) what is the probability that A or B will win?
d) what is the probability that A or B but not both will win?
e) what is the probability that neither A nor B will win?
f) what is the probability that A or B or C will win?
g) are A and B independent?
22. The distribution of number of seeds germinating, X is given below:
X 0 1 2 3 4
PX(x) 0.00390 0.046875 0.21093 0.421875 0.316406
6 8

Calculate the following:

i) The probability that more than 2 seeds will germinate.
ii) The probability that at most 3 seeds will germinate.
iii) The probability that X will be between 1 and 3 inclusive.
iv) The mean and variance of X.
29.A Library has five copies of a certain text, of which copies 1 and 2 are first
printing and copies 3, 4, and 5 are second printings. Two copies are to berandomly selected to be placed on 2-
hour reserve (implying 10 equally likely outcomes).

A. What is the probability that both selected copies are first printings?
B. What is the probability that both selected copies are second printings?

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C. What is the probability that at least one selected copy is a first printing?
D. What is the probability that the selected copies are different printings?
30 The student Engineers Council at a certain college has one student representative

from each of the five engineering majors (civil, electrical, industrial, materials, and

mechanical). In how many ways can

a. Both a council president and a vice-president be selected?

b. A president, a vice-president, and a secretary be selected?
c. Two members be selected for the president’s council?
32. A production facility employs 20 workers on the day shift, 15 workers on the

swing shift, and 10 workers on the graveyard shift. A quality control consultant is to select 6 of these workers
for in-depth interviews. Suppose the selection is made in such a way that any particular group of 6 workers
has the same chance of being selected as does any other group (drawing 6 slips without replacement from
among 45)

a. How many selections result in all 6 workers coming from the day shift? What is the
probability that all
6 selected workers will be from the day shift?
bWhat is the probability that all 6 selected workers will be from the same shift?
C What is the probability that at least two different shifts will be represented among the selected workers?
d. What is the probability that at least one of the shifts will be unrepresentative in the sample of workers?
33. An experimenter is studying the effects of temperature, pressure, and type of catalyst on yield from a certain
chemical reaction. Three different temperatures, four different pressures, and five different catalysts are under
consideration.If any particular experimental run involves the use of a single temperature, pressure, and catalyst,
how many experimental runs are possible?

A. How many experimental runs are there that involve use of the lowest temperature and two lowest
pressures?
34. An engineering professor wishes to schedule an appointment with each of her eight teaching assistants, four
men and four women, to discuss her calculus course. Suppose all possible orderings of appointments are equally
likely to be selected.

A. what is the probability that at least one female assistant is among the first three the professor meets with?
B. what is the probability that after the first five appointments she has met with all female assistants?
C. Suppose the professor has the same eight assistants the following semester and again schedules
appointments without regard to the ordering during the first semester. What is the probability that the
orderings of appointments are different?
35.The head size and grip size are determined for a randomly selected tennis racket purchaser at a certain sporting
goods store. Relevant probabilities appear in the accompanying table:

Grip Size

4 3/8 in. 4½ in. 4 5/8 in.

Head Size Midsize .10 .20 .15

Oversize .20 .15 .20

Let A denote the event that a midsize racket was purchased and B denote the event that a racket with a 4 ½ in.
grip was purchased.

A. Determine P(A), P(B), and (A B).

B. Calculate both P(A/B) and P(B/A) and explain in words what you have calculated in each case.

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises
C. If C denotes the event that grip size is at least 4 ½ in., calculate and interpret P(A/C).
36.A mathematics professor is teaching both a morning and an afternoon section of introductory calculus.
Let A = {the professor gives a bad morning lecture} and B= {the professor gives a bad afternoon lecture}.
If P(A) = .3, P(B) = .2, and P(AB) = .1, calculate the following probabilities (a Venn diagram might
help):

A. P(B/A) B. P(B/A)

C. P(B/A') D. P(B/A)

E. If at the conclusion of the afternoon class, the professor is heard tomutter “what a rotten lecture,”
what is the probability that the morning lecture was also bad?

37.At a certain gas station, 40% of the customers use regular unleaded gas (A 1), 35% use extra unleaded gas
(A2), and 25% use premium unleaded gas (A 3). Of those customer using regular gas, only 30% fill their tanks
(event B). Of those customers using extra gas, 60% fill their tanks, while of those using premium, 50% fill
their tanks.

A. What is the probability that the next customer will request extra unleaded gas and fill the tank (A 2B)?
B. What is the probability that the next customer fills the tank?

C. If the next customer fills the tank, what is the probability that regular gas in requested? Extra gas?
Premium gas?

38. If A and B are independent events, show that A& B and A' & B' are also independent.

[HNT: P(A B) = P(B) – P(A B) and P(A B') = P((AB)')]

39.An executive has both a morning and an afternoon meeting on a particular day. Let A = { late to the
morning meeting} and B = {Late to the afternoon meeting}.

a. If P(A) = .4, P(B) = .5, and P(A  B) = .25, are A and B independent events?
b. If A and B are independent event with P(A) =.4 and P(B) =.5, what is the probability that the
executive is on time to both meetings? To exactly one meeting?
40.The probability that a grader will make a marking error on any particular question of a multiple – choice
examis 0.1. If there are ten questions and questions are marked independently, what is the probability that no
errors are made? That at least one error is made? If there are n questions and the probability of a marking error
is p rather than .1, give expressions for these two probabilities.

41. Three automobiles are selected at random, and each is categorized as having a diesel (S) or nondiesel (F)
engine (so outcomes are SSS, SSF, etc.). If X = the number of cars among the three with diesel engines, list
each outcome in S and its associated X value.

42 The number of pumps in use at both a six-pump station and a four-pump station will be determined. Give
the possible values for each of the following random variables.

A. T = the total number of pumps in use

B. X = the difference between the numbers in use at stations 1 and 2

C. U = the maximum number of pumps in use at either station

D. Z = the number of stations having exactly two pumps in use

43.An automobile service facility specializing in engine tune-ups knows that 45% of all tune-ups are done on
four-cylinder automobiles, 40% on six-cylinder automobiles, and 15% on eight-cylinder automobiles. Let X =
the number of cylinders on the next car to be tuned.

A. What is the pmf X?

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B. Draw both a line graph and a probability histogram for the pmf of part (a).

44.Let X = the number of tires on a randomly selected automobile that are under inflated.

A. Which of the following three p(x) functions is a legitimate pmf for X , and why are the other two
not allowed?

X 0 1 2 3 4

p(x) .3 .2 .1 .05 .05

p(x) .4 .1 .1 .1 .3

p(x) .4 .1 .2 .1 .3

B. For the legitimate pmf of part (a), compute P(2  X  4 ), P(X  2), and P(X  0).

C. If p(x) = c (5 – x) for x = 0,1, . . . , 4, what is the value of c? [x4= 0 p(x) = 1.]

45. Two fair six-sided dice are tossed independently. Let M = the maximum of the two tosses (so M(1,5) = 5,
M(3,3) = 3, etc.

A. What is the pmf of M? [HINT: First determine p(1), then p(2), and so on.]

B. Determine the cdf of M and graph it

46.An insurance company offers its policyholders a number of different premium payment options. For a

randomly selected policyholder, let X = the number of months between successive payments. The cdf of
X is as follows:

0 x <1

.03 1x<3

F(x) = .40 3x<4

.45 4x<6

.60 6  x < 12

1 12  x

a. What is the pmf of X?

b. Using just the cdf, compute P(3  X  6) and P(4  X).
47. The pmf for X = the number of major defects on a randomly selected appliance of a certain type is

X 0 1 2 3 4

p(x) .08 .15 .45 .27 .05

Compute the following:

c. E(X)
d. V(X) directly from the definition
e. The standard deviation of X
f. V(X) using the shortcut formula
48.An instructor in a technical writing class has asked that a certain report be turned in the following week,

adding the restriction that any repot exceeding four pages will not be accepted. Let Y = the number of pages in a

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randomly chosen student’s report and suppose that Y has pmf

Y 1 2 3 4

p(y) .01 .19 .35 .45

A. Compute E(Y)
B. Suppose the instructor spends Y minutes grading a paper consisting of Y pages. What is the expected
amount of time [E(Y)] spent grading a randomly selected paper?
49.An appliance dealer sells three different models of upright freezers having 13.5, 15.9, and 19.1 cubic feet
of storage space, respectively. Let X = the amount of storage space purchased by the next customer to buy a
freezer. Suppose that X has pmf.

X 13.5 15.9 19.1

p(x) .2 .5 .3

A. Compute E(X), E(X2), and V(X).

B. If the price of a freezer having capacity X cubic feet is a 25X– 8.5, what is the expected price paid by the
next customer to buy a freezer?
C. What is the variance of the price 25X – 8.5 paid by the next customer?
D. Suppose that while the rated capacity of a freezer is X, the actual capacity is h(X) = X - .01X 2. What is the
expected actual capacity of the freezer purchased by the next customer?
50. Show that V(aX + b) = a2x2. [HINT: With h(X) = aX + b, E[h(X)] = a + b where  = E(X).]

51. When circuit boards used in the manufacture of compact disc players are tested, the long-run percentage of

defectives is 5% .Let X = the number of defective boards in a random sample of size n = 25, soX

Bin(25,.05).

A. Determine P(X  2).

B. Determine P(X  5).

C. Determine P(1  X  4).

D. What is the probability that none of the 25 boards are defective?

E. Calculate the expected value and standard deviation of X.

52. Suppose that only 20% of all drivers come to a complete stop at an intersection

having flashing red lights in all directions when no other cars are visible. What is

the probability that, of 20 randomly chosen drivers coming to an intersection

under these conditions,

A. At most 5 will come to a complete stop?

B. Exactly 5 will come to a complete stop?

C. At least 5 will come to a complete stop?

D. How many of the next 20 drivers do you expect to come to a

complete stop?

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53. Customers at a gas station selection either regular (A), premium (B), or dieselfuel (C). Assume that
successive customers make independent choices, with P(A) = .3, P(B) = .2, and P(C) = .5,

A. Among the next 100 customers, what are the mean and variance of the number who select
regular fuel? Explain your reasoning.

B. Answer part (a) for the number among the 100 who select a nondiesel fuel.

54. Let X denot the amount of time for which a book on 2-hour reserve at a college library is checked out by a

randomly selected student and suppose that X has density function

.5x , 0 x  2

f(x)= 0 Otherwise

Calculate the following probability:

A. P(X  1)
B. P(.5  X  1.5)
C. P(1.5 < X)
55. Suppose the distance X between a point target and a shot aimed at the point in

a coin-operated target game is a continuous rv with pdf

.75(1-x2) , - 1  x  1

f(x)= 0 Otherwise

A. Sketch the graph of f(x).

B. Compute P(X>0)

C. Compute P(-.5 < X < .5).

D. Compute P(X < -.25 or X > .25).

56.A college professor never finishes his lecture before the bell rings to end the

period and always finishes his lecture within 1 min after the bell rings. Let X =

the time that elapses between the bell and the end of the lecture and suppose the

pdf of X is

Kx2 0  x  1

f(x)= 0 Otherwise

A. Find the value of k. [HINT: Total area under the graph of f(x) is 1.]

B. What is the probability that the lecture ends within 1/2 min of the

bell ringing?

C. What is the probability that the lecture continues beyond the bell for etween 15 and 30 sec?

D. What is the probability that the lecture continues for at least 40 sec beyond the bell?

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57.Thecdf of checkout duration X as described in Exercise 47 is

0 ,x < 0

F(x)= x2 ,0  x < 2

1 ,2  x

Use this to compute the following:

A. P(X  1) b. P(.5  X  1)C. P(X > .5)

D. The median checkout duration  [solve .5 = F()]

E. F(x) to obtain the density function f(x)

58.Suppose the pdf of weekly gravel sales X (in tons) is

2(1- x) 0 x  1

f(x)= 0 Otherwise

A. Obtain the cdf of X and graph it.

B. What is P(X  .5) [i.e., F(.5)]

C. Using part (a), What is P(.25 < X  .5)? What is P(.25  X  .5)?

D. What is the 75th percentile of the sales distribution?

E. What is the median  of the sales distribution?

F. Compute E(X) and x.

59. Discuss the similarities and differences of normal , t and chi-square distributions.
60. By referring the standard normal distribution,what is the probability of obtaining a Z value of
a) at least 1.25? c) between -1.96 and 1.96?
b) atmost -1.25? d) between 1.22 and 1.85?
61.By referring the standard normal distribution, find z* which satisfies
a)P(Z>z*)= 0.95 b) P(Z<z*)=0.8
62.For a t curve with 20 df, find the areas
a) to the left of 2.086 and of 2.845.
b) to the right of 1.725 and of 2.528.
63. For a chi-square distribution with 2 df, find the areas
a) to the right of 5.991 and of 9.210.
b) between 5.991 and 9.210.
64. A study found that for 60% of the couples who have been married 10 years or less, both spouses work.
A sample of 10 couples who have been married 10 years or less are selected from marital records
available at a local courthouse. We are interested in the number of couples in this sample in which
both spouses work. What is the probability that this number is:

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises
a) 7 or more? b) 3 or fewer?
65. Poultry sells eggs to local markets. From past experience, 10% of the eggs are rotten. If we buy 10
eggs by selecting randomly, what will be the probability that
a) no egg is rotten?
b) 2 of the eggs are rotten?
c) at least 2 eggs are rotten?
d) at most 9 eggs are rotten?
66. Many samples of water, all the same size, are taken from a river suspected of having been polluted by
irresponsible operators at a sewage treatment plant. The number of coliform organisms in each sample
was counted; the average number of organisms per sample was 5. Assuming the number of organisms
to be poisson distributed, find the probability that
a) the next sample will contain at most 7 organisms.
b) the next sample will contain no organisms.
67. Customers in a bank arrive in random manner. Assuming that arrivals follow a poisson distribution
with mean 10 customers per 20 minutes, calculate the probability that
e) 5 customers will arrive within 20 minutes
f) no customer will arrive within 20 minutes
g) at least 1 customer will arrive within 20 minutes
h) 20 customers will arrive within one hour
68. Intelligence test scores, referred to as intelligence quotient or IQ scores, are based on characteristics
such as verbal skills, abstract reasoning power, numerical ability, and spatial visualization. If plotted
on a graph, the distribution of IQ scores approximates a normal curve with a mean of about 100. An
IQ score above 115 is considered superior. Studies of ‘‘intellectually gifted’’ children have generally
defined the lower limit of their IQ scores at 140; approximately 1% of the population have IQ scores
above this limit.
a) Find the standard deviation of this distribution.
b) What percent are in the ‘‘superior’’ range of 115 or above?
c) What percent of the population have IQ scores of 70 or below?
69. IQ scores for college graduates are normally distributed with a mean of 120 with a standard deviation
of 12. What is the probability of randomly selected graduate student with an IQ score
a) between 110 and 130? c) below 100?
b) above 140?
70. The time taken to complete a certain standard exam for deriving blicense by trainees is normally
distributed with a mean of 120 minutes and a standard deviation of 10 minutes.
If we randomly select one trainee, Calculate the probability that he/she will complete the exam
i) Between 110 and 130 minutes
j) After 120 minutes
k) Before 90 minutes

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Exercises4
1. Briefly explain the difference between probabilistic and non probabilistic sampling techniques.
2. Briefly explain the terms: population, sample, sampling frame.
3. Let x be the mean of a sample selected ¿ a population
a. What is the mean of the sampling distribution of x ?
n
b. What is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of x ? Assume < 0.05
N
4. Describe the relationship between sample size and standard error.
5. What is the difference between sampling and non sampling error?
6. The mean number of a certain bacteria per plots of land is 950 with a standard deviation of 255.
However, the distribution of all bacteria in that area is skewed. If we study 100 sample plots of land,
calculate the mean, the standard error of x̄ and the probability that the total number of bacteria in the
100 plots of land will be less than 95000.
7. A population has a distribution that is skewed to the left. Indicate in which of the following cases the
central limit theorem apply to describe the sampling distribution of the sample mean
a. n=400 b. n=25 c. n=36
8. The time taken to complete Introductory Biology course by all students is normally distributed with a
mean of 120 minutes and a standard deviation of 16 minutes. Let x be the mean time taken to complete
this test by a random sample of 4 students.
i. Calculate the mean and standard error of the sample mean and describe the shape of its
sampling distribution.
ii. What is the probability that the sample mean will be greater than 120 minutes?
iii. What is the probability that the sample mean will be between 116 and 124?
9. State the central limit theorem and describe its use in statistics.
10. Why is estimation important? Discuss the difference between point and interval estimation.
11. What are the advantages of using interval estimates rather than point estimates in statistical inference?
12. When do we use t distribution to construct confidence interval for the mean?
13. Discuss the various steps in hypothesis testing.
14. Discuss the difference between type I and type II errors.
15. When do we use one-tailed and two tailed hypothesis? Discuss.
16. How do we choose appropriate test statistic?
17. Explain the relationship between critical region and test statistic. Discuss cases when to reject the null
hypothesis.
18. Under what condition do we use chi-square test of association? Explain briefly.
19. A biologist measured a random sample of 12 fossil skeletons of an extinct species of bird. She found
that their skulls had a mean length of 6.34cm and a standard deviation of 0.45cm. She believes that the
lengths of the skulls follow a normal distribution. Use the data to obtain a 95% confidence interval for
the mean of this distribution.
20. A certain medication is known to increase the pulse rate of its users. The standard deviation of the pulse
rate is known to be 5 beats per minute. A sample of 30 users had an average pulse rate of 104 beats per
minute. Find the 99% confidence interval of the true mean.
21. A television documentary on overeating claimed that Americans are 16 pounds overweight on average.
To test this claim, 9 randomly selected individuals were examined, and the average excess weight was
found to be 18 pounds with a standard deviation of 4 pounds. Is there reason to believe the claim of 16
pounds to be too low? Use α= 0.05.
22. It is known in a pharmacological experiment that rats fed with a particular diet over a certain period gain
an average of 40 gms in weight. A new diet was tried on a sample of 20 rats yielding a weight gain of 43
gms with variance 7 gms. Test the hypothesis at 5% level of significance that the new diet has an
improvement, assuming normality.
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 Probability & Statistics Exercises
23. A random sample of 200 married men, all retired, was classified according to level of education and
number of children. Based on the data provided below, are number of number of children and father’s
education related? Use α= 0.05.
Number of children
Level of education 0-1 2-3 >3 Total
Elementary 14 37 32 83
Secondary 19 42 17 78
College 12 17 10 39
Total 45 96 59 200
24. In an experiment on immunization of cattle from tuberculosis, the following results were obtained:
Tuberculosis status
Immunization Affected Not affected Total
Inoculated 12 26 38
Not inoculated 16 6 22
Total 28 32 60
Discuss the effect of vaccine in controlling susceptibility to tuberculosis. Use 5% level of significance.
25. What is the importance of correlation coefficient? What are its possible values? How do we interpret
them?
26. Trace metals in drinking water affect the flavor of the water, and unusually high concentration can pose
a health hazard. The following table shows trace-metal concentrations (zinc, in mg/L) for both surface
water and bottom water at six different river locations. Our aim is to see if surface water concentration
(x) is predictive of bottom water concentration (y).
Locatio
n 1 2 3 4 5 6
Bottom 0.43 0.266 0.567 0.531 0.707 0.716
Surface 0.415 0.238 0.39 0.41 0.605 0.609
a) Draw a scatter diagram to show a possible association between the concentrations and check to see if
a linear model is justified.
b) Estimate the regression parameters, fit the regression line and interpret the coefficients.
c) Estimate the bottom water concentration for location with a surface water concentration of 0.5 mg/L.
d) Calculate the correlation coefficient and coefficient of determination and provide your interpretation.
27. The Table below gives the net food supply (x, number of calories per person per day) and the infant
mortality rate (y, number of infant deaths per 1000 live births) for certain selected countries before
World War II.
Countr
y Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Burma Canada
X 2730 3300 2990 3000 1080 3070
Y 98.8 39.1 87.4 83.1 202.1 67.4

Chile Cuba Egypt France Germany

2240 2610 2450 2880 2960

240.8 116.8 162.9 66.1 63.3

a) Draw a scatter diagram to show a possible association between the infant mortality rate (used as the
dependent variable) and the net food supply and check to see if a linear model is justified.
b) Estimate the regression parameters, fit the regression line and interpret the coefficients.

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 Probability & Statistics Exercises
c) Estimate the infant mortality rate for a country with a net food supply of 2900 calories per person per
day.
d) Calculate the correlation coefficient and provide your interpretation.

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