Exercises- Sample Distributions

1. Suppose that during any hour in a large department store, the average number of shoppers is
448, with a standard deviation of 21 shoppers. What is the probability that a random sample
of 49 different shopping hours will yield a sample mean between 441 and 446 shoppers?

2. A population has a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. If a random sample of 64 is

taken, what is the probability that the sample mean is each of the following?

a. Greater than 52
b. Less than 51
c. Between 48.5 and 52.4

3. The amount of time a bank teller spends with each customer has a population mean, = 3.10
minutes and a standard deviation, = 0.40 minute. If you select a random sample of 16
customers,

a. what is the probability that the mean time spent per customer is at least 3 minutes?
b. there is an 85% chance that the sample mean is less than how many minutes?
c. What assumption must you make in order to solve (a) and (b)?
d. If you select a random sample of 64 customers, there is an 85% chance that the
sample mean is less than how many minutes?

4. The Sony Corporation produces a Walkman that requires two AA batteries. The mean life of
these batteries in this product is 35.0 hours. The distribution of the battery lives closely
follows the normal probability distribution with a standard deviation of 5.5 hours. As a part of
their testing program Sony tests samples of 25 batteries.

a. What can you say about the shape of the distribution of the sample mean?
b. What is the standard error of the distribution of the sample mean?
c. What proportion of the samples will have a mean useful life of more than 36 hours?
d. What proportion of the samples will have a mean useful life greater than 34.5 hours?
e. What proportion of the samples will have a mean useful life between 34.5 and 36.0 hours?

5. An orange juice producer buys all his oranges from a large orange grove that has one
variety of orange. The amount of juice squeezed from these oranges is approximately
normally distributed, with a mean of 4.70 ounces and a standard deviation of 0.40 ounce.
Suppose that you select a sample of 25 oranges.
a. What is the probability that the sample mean amount of juice will be least 4.60 ounce?
 b. The probability is 70% that the sample mean amount of juice will be contained
between what two values symmetrically distributed around the population mean?
c. The probability is 77% that the sample mean amount of juice will be greater than what
value?
Answer

X 0.40
 X  4.7 X    0.08
n 5
(a) P(4.60 < X ) = P(– 1.25 < Z) = 1 – 0.1056 = 0.8944
(b) P(A < X < B) = P(– 1.04 < Z < 1.04) = 0.70
A = 4.70 – 1.04(0.08) = 4.6168 ounces
X = 4.70 + 1.04(0.08) = 4.7832 ounces
(c) P( X > A) = P(Z > – 0.74) = 0.77 A = 4.70 – 0.74(0.08) = 4.6408

6. You plan to conduct a marketing experiment in which students are to taste one of two
different brands of soft drink. Their task is to correctly identify the brand tasted. You
select a random sample of 200 students and assume that the students have no ability to
distinguish between the two brands. (Hint: If an individual has no ability to distinguish
between the two soft drinks, than each brand is equally likely to be selected)

a. What is the probability that the sample will have between 50% and 60% of their
identification correct?
b. The probability is 90% that the sample percentage is contained within what symmetrical
limits of the population percentage?
c. What is the probability that the sample percentage of correct identification is greater
than 65%?
d. Which is more like to occur- more than 60% correct identification is the sample of 200
or more than 55% correct identification in a sample of 1,000? Explain.
Answer

a. P(0.50 < p < 0.60) = P(0 < Z < 2.83) = 0.4977

b. P(– 1.645 < Z < 1.645) = 0.90
p = .50 – 1.645(0.0354) = 0.4418 p = .50 + 1.645(0.0354) = 0.5582
c. P(p > 0.65) = P (Z > 4.24) = virtually zero
d. If n = 200, P(p > 0.60) = P (Z > 2.83) = 1.0 – 0.9977 = 0.0023
If n = 1000, P(p > 0.55) = P (Z > 3.16) = 1.0 – 0.99921 = 0.00079
More than 60% correct in a sample of 200 is more likely than more than 55%
correct in a sample of 1000.