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Elementary Statistics - Exercise

Chapter 1 Introduction to Survey and Statistics

1. A design house located in a large shopping mall in the west Kowloon district is going to conduct
a survey in order to study the renovation expenses for an apartment in the west Kowloon district.
A list of 900 flats sold during the last 12 months in the west Kowloon district is obtained and is
going to be used as the sampling frame. It is decided to select 10 flats for detailed examination
by simple random sampling method.

(a) What is the objective of the survey?

(b) What is the population of this survey?
(c) How large is the population size?
(d) How large is the sample size?
(e) Write down the result of the sampling if the selection is based on the random number table
below (Start the selection from row 1 column 1).
Extract from a random number table
4694821578165489205481048548913581121805
8218500295305444684464687598717840030899

(f) Suppose a systematic sample of 10 flats is required instead. Write down the result of the
sampling if the first selection is based on the random number table above.

2. A joint hotel group with 500 registered customers in hotel A, 1200 registered customers in hotel
B and 800 registered customers in hotel C wishes to undertake a survey to understand the views
and personal experience of customers when using the on-line booking system. Questionnaires
will be sent to a sample of 500 registered customers. A random selection which results as a
close representation to the three hotels is expected.

(a) What is the objective of this survey?

(b) What is the population of this survey?
(c) How large is the population size?
(d) How large is the sample size?
(e) Which sampling method should be used?
(f) What is the sample size for registered customers from each hotel?

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3. In an annual dinner, every employee receives an identity number in the reception counter based
on the arrival time. As there are 600 employees, the identity numbers are 001 to 600. 20
prizes are prepared.

(a) Suppose the 20 prizes will be presented to 20 employees by using systematic sampling method.
If the identity number of the first winner is 028, what are the identity numbers of the next 4
winners?
(b) Suppose the 20 prizes will be presented to 20 employees by using simple random sampling
method. The random selection will start from row 1 column 1 of the following random number
table. What are the identity numbers of the first 5 winners?
6187041657079680861298083973492077545091
4389865923250788612978496976539155008078

4.
(a) John wants to conduct a survey for a company with 200 employees. He will interview a total
of 50 employees. The following table shows the number of employees in different
departments:

Department Male Female

Accounting 10 10
Marketing 30 30
Sales 80 40

i) To avoid unbalanced selection between different departments, how many employees from the
Accounting, Marketing, and Sales departments should he interview?
ii) Individual samples are drawn randomly from the three departments and then will be put together
for analysis. What is the name of this sampling method?

(b) There are 2500 employees in an accounting firm. The senior management wants to randomly
select 200 employees to check their professional qualifications. If simple random sampling
method is used, write down the identity numbers of the first four employees by using the
following random number table (start at row 1 column 1).
35694502078596062318257965101847828814979170……

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5. A supermarket chain with 1500 supermarkets wishes to undertake a survey to understand the
safety facilities in the store. Questionnaires will be sent to a sample of 60 supermarkets. The
number of supermarkets in different district is as follow:

Central South North East West

550 250 200 350 150

(a) What is the objective of this survey?

(b) What is the population of this survey?
(c) How large is the population size?
(d) How large is the sample size?
(e) Suppose the sample is selected by stratified sampling method. How many supermarkets from
each district should be selected?
(f) Suppose the sample is selected by systematic sampling method. What is the advantage of
using systematic sampling method?
(g) When using systematic sampling method, a unique identity number should be assigned to each
supermarket. Suppose now supermarket with identity number 0037 is included in the sample.
Write down the identity number of the next three selected supermarkets.

6. There were a total of 1040 new members joining the yoga club in the year 2014. A random
sample includes 5% of these members will be selected for a survey. Based on a list with the
information of these 1040 members, identity numbers are given to each of them, namely 0001 to
1040.

(a) Calculate the sample size.

(b) Systematic sampling method would be used for the selection. Write down the identity numbers
of the first 10 selected members if the first member is selected from the random number table as
shown here (start with row 1 column 1).
71578216548920548104854891358112180556

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7. In a research company, the number of employees in the four major departments is follow:

Department Research Finance Marketing Data

Processing
Number of Employees 20 30 50 80

(a) A research will be conducted and stratified random sampling method will be used to generate
the sample so that there will be no bias towards any department. Suppose 4 employees will be
selected from Research department. How many employees from each of the other 3
departments should be selected?
(b) The 4 representatives from the Research department will be elected by simple random sampling
method based on the random number table below (start the random selection from row 1 column
1). Suppose each employee in the Research department has been assigned a unique identity
number. Write down the identity numbers of the staff in the sample.
6187041657079680861298083973492077545091
4389865923250788612978496976539155008078

8. In an insurance company, there are four major departments, namely Insurance Consultant,
Finance, Human Resources, and Marketing. A research will be conducted and stratified
random sampling method will be used to generate a sample so that there will be no bias towards
any department.

(a) Fill in the missing information in the following table:

Department Insurance Finance Human Marketing
Consultant Resources
Number of 250 180 (i) (ii)
Employees
Number of 50 (iii) 12 20
representatives
in the survey

(b) The department head of each department will select representatives in his department by
systematic sampling method. Suppose each employee in the Insurance Consultant department
has been assigned a unique identity number. Write down the identity number of the next 4
representatives in the Insurance Consultant department if the identity number of the first
representative is 004.

k=250/50=5
009,014,019,024
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9. A large scale survey was conducted by a magazine to investigate the total spending (in dollars)
for lunch in a week of Hong Kong secondary 5 students. A sample of 24 students was selected
by convenience sampling method with the following data:

55 80 87 92 103 125
130 143 160 170 190 225
229 234 239 245 269 288
298 320 335 360 420 435

(a) State one reason why simple random sampling method is not practical in this survey.
(b) Find the 10th percentile, median, and 90th percentile of the data.

10. Below are the number of hours spent on playing on-line game by a group of members selected
from an on-line game forum.
27 5 9 19 13 22 23 12 6 18

(a) Find the sample mean and sample median.

(b) Find the first quartile and the third quartile.

11. The following is the time spent on lunch (in minutes) on 31 July 2021 by a random sample of 15
employees selected from a company:
13 15 18 19 24 25 26 28
29 30 35 41 42 49 50

(a) Find the sample mean and sample median.

(b) Find the 10th percentile, 20th percentile, 80th percentile and 90th percentile.

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12. The number of family members living together for a sample of 25 students’ households is
recorded below:

1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
4 5 5 8 9

(a) Find the mean, median and mode of the above data set.
(b) Find the first quartile and the third quartile.
(c) Find the 75th percentile, 85th percentile, and 95th percentile.

13. There are three sales teams in the sales department of an insurance company. The numbers of
sales in these three teams are 29, 30, and 38 respectively. The average age of staff in these
three teams are 27, 33, and 29 respectively. Compute the overall average age of staff in the
sales department.

14. The following is the number of complaints received by the customer service manager in the first
three months of year 2020.

Month Number of complaints

March 42
April 38
May 19

(a) Find the average number of complaints received per day in March, April, and May respectively
(b) Find the overall average number of complaints received per day between March and May in year
2020.

15. Mary is a senior manager. She has two junior salespersons and three senior salespersons in her
team. The average sale of the two junior salespersons in this month is 80 items, and the
average sale of two of the senior salespersons is 75 items. How many items must the last
senior salespersons make so that the overall sale of the whole team in this month is 82 items?

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16. Following is the number of packages a post office received in a sample of 12 mornings:

56 24 40 33 42 k 52 57
23 29 31 38

Suppose the sample mean of the above dataset is known to be 41 packages.

(a) Find the value of the unknown data k.

(b) Find the median of the above dataset.

17. Below are the times taken (to the nearest 0.1 second) to finish 100 meters race by a sample of
13 primary 5 students:

15.1 k 13.9 15.6 14.6 16.2 14.1

16.2 15.4 14.9 14.2 14.8 13.5

Suppose the sample mean of the above dataset is known to be 14.9 seconds.

(a) Find the value of the unknown data k.

(b) Find the median of the above dataset.

18. A social health care center has conducted a survey and one question is to study “how often do
you dinner at home?” In a sample with 10 interviewees, the number of evening an interview
stays home for dinner is as follows:
5, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 22, 23, 29.

(a) Find the sample mean and sample median.

(b) Find the sample standard deviation, range and inter-quartile range.

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19. A random sample of 11 vouchers is taken from a corporate expense account. The Voucher
amounts ($) are as follows:

276.72 194.17 259.83 249.45

201.43 237.66 199.28 211.49
240.16 261.10 226.21

Compute:
(a) the range;
(b) the interquartile range;
(c) the variance;
(d) the standard deviation.

20. The following is the expense in a souvenir store by a sample of 10 customers in Clear Water
Bay:
85 133 121 246 77 65 236 181 58 63

(a) Find the sample mean, sample standard deviation and sample variance.
(b) Find the first quartile and the third quartile.

21. Below is the number of products finished in a day by a sample of 9 workers in a factory.
Comment on the shape of the distribution. Explain your answer.
50 51 52 54 54 54 58 60 68

22. Below are the time (rounded to the nearest second) required to download a game by using a
smartphone:
52 49 67 28 49 92 75 64

(a) What is the sample mean?

(b) What is the sample median?
(c) What are Q1 and Q3?
(d) What are the range and interquartile range?
(e) What are the sample variance and sample standard deviation?
(f) Describe the shape of the distribution. State your reason.
(g) Write a short paragraph to summarize the finding.

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23. The following is the daily expense ($) on 1 July 2021 by a sample of 12 tourists from Singapore.

873 2460 951 730 327 1214

768 5293 662 591 820 4260

(a) Compute the sample mean, sample median, first quartile, third quartile.
(b) Compute the range, inter-quartile range, and sample standard deviation.
(c) How do you describe the shape of the distribution? State your reason.
(d) Write a short paragraph to summarize the finding.

24. A marketing research team is working on a project studying the reading habit of primary six
students in Hong Kong. A similar survey has been conducted in China and the team wants to
compare the difference between China students and Hong Kong students. One of the questions
is the amount of time (to the nearest hour) primary six students spend on reading in a week. A
sample of 16 primary six students is selected by convenience sampling method and the results
are as follows:

6 6 7 7 8 10 12 14 15 15 16 20 28 28 30 32

(a) State one reason why simple random sampling is not practical for this survey.
(b) Find the sample mean and sample standard deviation for the data.
(c) Find the first quartile, median, and third quartile for the data.
(d) Find the 10th percentile and 90th percentile.
(e) Describe the shape of the distribution of the data. State your reason.
(f) Write a short paragraph to summarize the finding.

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25. “Easy Wash” is a newly released laundry detergent. Following is the number of boxes of
“Easy Wash” sold during 21 June 2021 to 27 June 2021 at 15 randomly selected supermarkets:

62, 53, 41, 39, 65, 55, 52, 77, 61, 65, 63, 45, 70, 58, 62

(a) Find the mean, mode, median, first quartile, third quartile and standard deviation
(b) Describe the shape of the distribution with explanation.
(c) Write a short paragraph to compare the sales of “Easy Wash” with another laundry detergent
“Cleany” with the following summary statistics:

sample mean = 42 boxes

sample standard deviation = 15 boxes
sample median = 40 boxes

26. The following data represents the total fat (in grams) for burgers and fried chicken from a
sample of fast-food chains.
Burgers: 19 25 28 31 34 34 35 39 39 43 43
Fried chicken: 7 9 15 16 16 18 22 25 27 33 39

(a) Compute the sample mean, sample variance and sample standard deviation for burgers and fried
chicken respectively.
(b) Write a short paragraph to compare the fat contents in burgers and fried chicken?

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27. Given that the spending ($) of a random sample of 8 customers for lunch in a restaurant as:
52, 50, 56, 68, 65, 62, 57, 70

(a) Find the sample mean and sample standard deviation of the spending.
(b) If there is a 10% off discount for all items in the restaurant, find the new sample mean and
sample standard deviation of the spending by:
(i) calculate the discounted spending of each customer.
(ii) define a linear function with Y as the discounted spending and X as the original spending.
(c) If there is a $8 off coupon which can be used for lunch for each customer, find the new sample
mean and sample standard deviation of the spending by:
(i) calculate the spending of each customer after using the coupon.
(ii) define a linear function with W as the spending after using the coupon and X as the
original spending.

28. There are 300 overweight patients joining a weight reduction program which target to help
patient to reduce the body weight by 10%. A random sample of 16 patients is selected so to
monitor the progress of the program. Below are the weights (round off to the nearest kg) of
these 16 patients before joining the program.

86 85 93 108 84 84 99 92
91 91 87 103 113 98 118 106

(a) Find the sample mean and sample standard deviation for the data.
(b) Find the first quartile, median, and third quartile for the data.
(c) Find the 10th percentile and 90th percentile.
(d) The target of the program is to reduce the body weight by 10%. If all patients exactly meet the
target, what are the sample mean and sample standard deviation of the body weight of these 16
patients after the program?
(e) Report the sample mean and sample standard deviation of the body weight of these 16 patients
after the program in terms of pounds.

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29. A sample of 10 headphones is selected from an online store and the selling prices (in US$) are
presented in an ordered array as:

16, 25, 75, 125, 150,

185, k, 190, 200, 260

(a) It is known that the sample mean selling price of the above data is US$ 141.1, find the value of
k.
(b) Find the sample standard deviation and sample variance of the above data.
(c) Find the first quartile, median and third quartile of the above data.
(d) Customers can make overseas order from the online store. The currency exchange rate is US$
1 to HK$ 7.75. When an order is made in Hong Kong, there will be a service charge of HK$
35 for each item. Find the sample mean and sample standard deviation of the payment of
ordering the headphone in HK$.

30. In a school with 162 primary 6 students, a sample of 18 students is selected to attend an English
aptitude test. A unique student number is assigned to each student, namely 001 to 162.
Suppose the sample is selected by systematic sampling method and the first selected student is
the student with student number 007.

(a) Write down the student numbers of the next three students in the sample.

The followings are the result (marks) of the test:

35 31 42 33 25 36 55 39 48
28 61 47 23 52 38 44 35 30

(b) Find the 20th percentile, the median, and the 80th percentile of the above data.
(c) Find the sample mean and the sample standard deviation of the above data.
(d) Write a short paragraph (around 30 – 60 words) to summarize the findings in (b) and (c).
(e) The passing mark of this test is 40. The teacher wants to adjust the mark of each student so
that exactly half of the students could pass the test. Use X to denote the original mark and Y to
denote the mark after adjustment. If the mark is adjusted by the formula Y = 0.9X + a, what
should be the value of a so that the median after the change is 40 marks?

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31. A random sample of 12 cups of fruit salad is selected from the salad bar of a café. Below are
the net weights (in grams) of fruit salad in the fruit cups:

230 285 270 258 295 242

273 301 280 282 260 290

(a) Find the 20th percentile and the 80th percentile of the data.
(b) Calculate the sample mean and the sample standard deviation of the data.
(c) The selling price of a cup of fruit salad is $5 plus $9.5 per 100 grams of salad. Find the 20 th
percentile, 80th percentile, sample mean and sample standard deviation of the selling price of a
cup of fruit salad.
(d) Write a short paragraph (around 30 – 60 words) to summarize the findings in part (c).

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Chapter 2 Probability Distributions

1. The following is the probability distribution function of the number of tutorial classes (X) a
secondary school student attends in a week.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
P(X = x) k k 0.4 0.15 2k 2k

(a) What is the value of k?

(b) Most likely, how many tutorial classes a secondary school student attends in a week? What is
the corresponding probability?
(c) What is the probability that a secondary school student attends at most one tutorial classes in a
week?
(d) What is the probability that a secondary school student attends at least three tutorial classes in a
week?

2. The following is the probability distribution function of the number of notebooks sold (X) by
Alex in a day.

x 0 1 2 3 4
P(X = x) 4k 10k 3k 2k k

(a) What is the value of k?

(b) Most likely, how many notebooks are sold by Alex in a day? What is the corresponding
probability?
(c) Alex can get the daily bonus if he can sell more than 3 notebooks in day. What is the
probability that Alex can get the daily bonus?

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3. Based on recent records, the manager of a car painting center has determined the following
probability distribution for the number of service request per day (X). Suppose the center has
the capacity to serve two customers per day.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
P(X = x) 0.05 0.20 0.30 0.25 0.15 0.05

(a) Most likely, how many service request would there be in a day?
(b) What is the probability that there are less than 2 requests in a day?
(c) What is the probability that there are more than 2 requests on a day?
(d) At least by how many must the capacity be increased so that the probability of turning a request
away is no more than 0.1?

4. Below is the probability distribution function of the number of newspapers Johnny buy in a
week:

x 0 1 2 3 4
P(X = x) 0.3 0.3 0.2 a 0.1

(a) Find the value of a

(b) Find E(X), Var(X) and the standard deviation of X.

5. The tables below are the probability distribution functions of number of sick leave taken in a
month by male and female employees in a large company.

X: number of sick leave taken by male

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
P(X = x) 0.3 0.29 0.24 0.12 0.03 0.02

Y: number of sick leave taken by female

y 0 1 2 3 4 5
p(Y = y) ? 0.32 0.34 0.06 0.04 0.03

(a) What are the expected, variance and standard deviation of numbers of sick leave taken in a
month by male employees?
(b) What are the expected, variance and standard deviation of numbers of sick leave taken in a
month by female employees?
(c) How do you compare the number of sick leave taken by male employee and female employee?

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6. The following is the probability distribution function of the revenue (X) by investing $10,000 in
a particular stock for a month.

x 8000 9000 12000 18000

p(x) 0.2 0.5 0.2 k

(a) Find the value of k.

(b) Find E(X), Var(X) and 𝜎(𝑋).

Define profit Y = X – 10000.

(c) Find E(Y), Var(Y) and 𝜎(𝑌).
(d) What is the probability that the profit is more than $5000?
(e) Johnny is considering investing in this stock. Write him a short paragraph to summarize the
profit of this investment for his consideration.

7. The following is the probability distribution function of the projected revenue, X, of a stock.

x 2000 6000 10000 15000 18000

P(X = x) 0.1 0.15 0.25 0.5 - m m

(a) What is the range of the possible values of m?

Suppose now m = 0.2

(b) Find E(X), Var(X) and σ(X).
(c) Suppose the investment cost of this stock is $8000. Calculate the expected profit.

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8. The following table represents the probability distribution function of the number of complaints
(X) received by a customer service desk in a day.

x 0 1 2 3 4
P(X = x) k 2k 4k 2.5k 0.5k

(a) What is the value of k?

(b) Find E(X), Var(X) and σ(X).
(c) Assume it takes 1.5 hours to handle each complaint. Find the expected value and standard
deviation of the number of hours needed for handling complaints in a day.
(d) What is the probability that there is no complaint received in a day?
(e) What is the probability that it takes more than 5 hours to handle complaints in a day?
(f) Currently there is only one customer service officer responsible for handling complaints
received at the customer service desk. The senior management is discussing if extra
manpower is needed. Write a short paragraph (around 30 – 60 words) to summarize the
number of hours needed for handling complaints in a day with the findings in (c) to (e) as a
reference for the discussion.

9. The following is the probability distribution function of the number of job orders Amy gets in a
day (X).

x 0 1 2 3 4
P(X=x) 2a a a 3a 8a

(a) What is the value of a?

(b) What are the expectation and standard deviation of the number of job orders Amy gets in a day?
(c) Suppose Amy’s daily salary is calculated as Y = 150 + 80X, what are the expectation and
standard deviation of Amy's daily salary?
(d) Write a short paragraph to summarize Amy’s daily salary.

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10. Sammy is a senior technician. Below is his own description about his workload:

“In one day, I can take at most three orders. The chance to have one order a day is the double
of having no job at all. The chance to have two orders is the same as having exactly one. It is
rare to have three jobs a day, which is just half likely as having nothing to do for the whole
day.”

(a) Tabulate the probability distribution of X, where X is the number of job Sammy will do in a day.
(b) Compile expectation and standard deviation of X.
(c) Suppose his basic daily salary is $800 and each job gives him a commission of $300. What are
the expectation and standard deviation of his daily salary?
(d) Write a short paragraph to summarize Sammy’s daily salary.

11. The daily income of a tourist guide is calculated with the following formula Y = 300 + 75X,
where X is the number of tourists in the group. Suppose the distribution function of the
number of tourists in a group is as follow:

x 11 12 13 14 15 16
P(X=x) a a 3a 3a 2a 2a

(a) Calculate the expectation and standard deviation of the number of tourists in a group.
(b) Calculate the expectation and standard deviation of the daily income of a tourist guide.

12. The account clerks of an accounting firm will have a salary adjustment based on the following
formula, Y = 1.06X + 800, where X is the salary before adjustment. Suppose E(X) = $15000
and (X) = $1300, find the expectation and standard deviation of salary after adjustment.

13. The expectation and standard deviation of the annual revenue by investing HK$ 100,000 in a
low risk bond issued in the United States are US$ 13320 and US$ 210.

(a) Find the expectation and standard deviation of the revenue in terms of Hong Kong dollars.
(US$1 converts to HK$ 7.8)
(b) Find the expectation and standard deviation of the profit made in terms of Hong Kong dollars.

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14. Mary is an online trader who helps customer to purchase goods from the United States and
deliver the goods to the customers. Her business has an expected revenue of US$ 7000 in a
month and the standard deviation of the monthly revenue is US$ 900. Suppose the cost to run
her online business is fixed at HK$ 14000 per month.

(a) Find the expectation and standard deviation of the monthly revenue in terms of Hong Kong
dollars. (US$1 converts to $7.8)
(b) Find the expectation and standard deviation of the monthly profit in terms of Hong Kong
dollars.
(c) Write a short paragraph to summarize Mary’s business.

15. For X ~ Bin(n, p), determine the following:

(a) If n = 4 and p = 0.12, then P(X = 0) = ?

(b) If n = 10 and p = 0.4, then P(X = 9) = ?
(c) If n = 15 and p = 0.5, then P(X = 12) = ?

16. In a café, there are two types of coffee, type A and type B. Type A is more popular than Type
B that 75% of the customers would choose type A coffee. Suppose now there are 12 customers
in the line. Use X to denote the number of customers in the line would choose type A coffee,
X ~ Bin(n, p).

(a) What are the value of n and p?

(b) Calculate the probability that exactly 8 customers would choose coffee A, that is P(X = 8).
(c) Calculate the probability that at least 10 customers would choose coffee A, that is P(X ≥ 10).
(d) Calculate the probability that at least 2 customers would choose coffee A, that is P(X ≥ 2).

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17. Jimmy is a salesman of home computers. He makes 4 new contacts every week. Each
contact can result in either a sale, with probability 0.3, or no sale, with probability 0.7. Assume
that customers’ responses are independent. Use X to denote the number of computers sold in a
week, X ~ Bin(n, p).

(a) What are the value of n and p?

(b) Tabulate the probability distribution function of X.
(c) Most likely, how many computers can be sold by Jimmy in a week?
(d) What are the expectation and standard deviation of the number of computers sold by Jimmy in a
week?
(e) Write a simple paragraph to describe Jimmy’s weekly performance in selling home computers.

18. Peter is late for work 5% of the time. Each month, he goes to work for 25 days. Use X to
denote the number of days Peter will be late for work in a month, X ~ Bin(n, p).

(a) What are the value of n and p?

(b) How many days he is expected to be late in a month?
(c) What is the standard deviation of the number of days he is being late in a month?
(d) Most likely, how many days he will be late in a month? What is the corresponding
probability?

19. According to the guideline from the Health Department, every over-weight child needs to take a
fitness test. Every ten over-weight children would be randomly grouped together to attend the
fitness test. According to the past experience, the probability for each child to pass the fitness
test is 0.75 and whether a child can pass the test is independent with the test result of other
children.

(a) Many test sessions will be conducted regularly, each with 10 independent children. Find the
expectation and standard deviation of the number of children can pass the fitness test in a test
session.
(b) Most likely, how many children can pass the fitness test in a test session? Justify your answer
by comparing the two outcomes with the relatively high probability.
(c) Find the probability that less than 8 children can pass the fitness test in one test session.

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20. In a cafe, there are three favors of sliced cakes, chocolate, strawberry, and green tea. Chocolate
cake is the most popular choice for which 60% of the customers would order it. 20%
customers order strawberry cake, and the other 20% customers order green tea cake. There are
15 seats in the café. Assume every customer order a sliced cake independently. Write a
simple paragraph about the number of customers would order a chocolate cake when the café is
fully occupied. (Hint: calculate expectation and standard deviation of number of customers
would order a chocolate cake).

21. According to the previous observation, 40% of the people will buy some snacks from the nearby
shop before going into the cinema. There are 15 independent people getting ready to go into
the cinema.

(a) Most likely, how many of them will buy some snacks from the nearby shop before going into
the cinema? What is the corresponding probability?
(b) What is the probability that at least 4 people will buy some snacks from the shop before going
into the cinema?

22. In a town, 35% of the residents have received tertiary education. Jim is working in a company
with a total of 12 staff. Suppose the education levels of the staff are independent events.

(a) Most likely, how many staff has received tertiary education? What is the corresponding
probability?
(b) What is the probability that at most 3 staff has received tertiary education?

23. There are 8 people in a queue waiting for the ATM machine. Based on the past experience,
there is 30% chance a person needs more than 2 minutes to finish a transaction.

(a) What is the probability that less than 3 people in the queue needs more than 2 minutes to finish
their transactions?
(b) What is the probability that none of them need more than 2 minutes to finish their transactions?
(c) What is the probability that all of them need more than 2 minutes to finish their transactions?

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24. A man goes fishing every day and there is a 60% chance that the man catches a fish in a day.

(a) Find the (i) expected number and (ii) standard deviation of the number of days that the man can
catch a fish in a week.
(b) Find the probability that the man catches a fish on at least 5 days in a week.

25. In a city, there is a 20% chance of having a car accident on a particular day. Having a car
accident in any day in the city is independent.

(a) What are the (i) expectation and (ii) standard deviation of the number of days with car accident
in the city for months with 30 days?
(b) What is the probability that there are at least 3 days in November with a car accident in the city?

26. The following is the probability distribution function of the number of nights (X) a customer
stays in a hotel.

x 1 2 3 4 5
P(X = x) 0.55 0.25 0.1 3k k

(a) Find the value of k?

(b) Find the expectation and standard deviation of number of nights a customer stays in a hotel.

Twelve independent bookings are randomly selected from the system.

(c) What is the probability that there are exactly 5 customers staying 1 night in the hotel?

27. A crossword puzzle is published in SCMP from every Monday to Saturday. A man is able to
complete, on average, 8 out of 10 of the crossword puzzles.

(a) Find the expected value and the standard deviation of the number of completed crossword
puzzle in a particular week (from Monday to Saturday).
(b) Show that the probability that he will complete at least 5 puzzles in a given week is 0.655.

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28. King Louis Hospital is an elderly hospital, which only admit patients who aged over 70. There
are many rooms in the hospital, each room admits 9 patients. Male patients are assigned to
rooms in West Wing while female patients are assigned to rooms in East Wing. A recent
medical research reveals that, in this city, 29% of male who aged over 70 years old have disease
X.

(a) What are the (i) expectation and the (ii) standard deviation of the number of patients in a room
in West Wing have disease X?
(b) Most likely, how many patients in a room in West Wing have disease X? What is the
corresponding probability?
(c) What is the probability that there are at least 3 patients in a room in West Wing have disease X?
(d) The hospital authority wants to review the budget plan for every hospital in the city for the
treatment of disease X. Write a simple summary about the number of patients with disease X
in a room in the West Wing of Hospital King Louis.

29. In a city, 75% of the company has hired recycling company to collect the used papers for
recycling. In a new commercial building, 33 companies will move in in the coming few
months. Your company wants to bid the contract to provide recycling service for this building.
Below is the projected revenue and cost of running the business:
(i) Monthly revenue of $4000 from every company requiring the recycling service.
(ii) A fixed monthly service charge of $20000 from the property management office.
(iii) A fixed monthly expense to provide the recycling service is $50000 for a commercial
building.
(iv) Additional cost of $800 for each company requiring the recycling service.

(a) Use X to denote the number of companies will require recycling service and Y to denote the
monthly profit generated from providing recycling service for this building. Express Y as a
function of X.
(b) Most likely, how many companies in this new commercial building will require recycling
service? What is the corresponding probability?
(c) Find the (i) maximum value, (ii) expectation and (iii) standard deviation of Y.
(d) What is the probability that the monthly profit is more than $70000?
(e) Write a simple report (about 40 to 60 words) to summarize the monthly profit generated from
providing recycling service for this new commercial building by using the information in part
(a) to (d).

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30. Practice the use of standard normal table

Use the standard normal table, find the following probabilities:
(a) P(0 < Z < 2)
(b) P(Z < 1.86)
(c) P(-0.24 < Z < 0)
(d) P(-0.24 < Z < 2.40)
(e) P(-1.79 < Z < -1.30)
(f) P(Z < -1.58)

31. Amy is running a small café shop. Suppose the monthly revenue follows a normal distribution
with mean $60,000 and standard deviation $13,000.

(a) What is the probability that Amy has a monthly revenue of more than $65,000 in a particular
month?
(b) What is the probability that Amy has a monthly revenue between $40,000 and $58,000 in a
particular month?
(c) What is the probability that Amy has a monthly revenue of less than $35,000 in a particular
month?

32 According to the past experience, the average arrival time of a flight is 18:10. Consider X be
the number of minutes a flight being delay. X has a normal distribution with mean 0 and
standard deviation of 10 minutes.

(a) What is the probability that the flight arrives before its 18:00?
(b) Passengers must check in for a connecting flight by 18:30 at the latest. What is the probability
that passengers from the first flight arrive too late for the connecting flight? (Assume no
traveling time from aircraft to check-in)

33. Practice the use of standard normal table

Use the standard normal table, find the value of k.
(a) P(0 < Z < k) = 0.2611
(b) P(k < Z < 0) = 0.0910
(c) P(Z > k) = 0.123
(d) P(Z < k) = 0.912
(e) P(Z < k) = 0.1515
(f) P(Z > k) = 0.9408

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34. A master card company study found that the monthly card spending by a customer follows a
normal distribution with mean $5000 and standard deviation $1200. Assume that the top
10.2% and bottom 5% spending are classified as “high spending class” and “low spending class”
respectively. Determine the cut-off point for the

(a) high spending class and

(b) low spending class.

35. Suppose the price of an air ticket to European countries follow a normal distribution with mean
$5200 and standard deviation $740. Suppose 95% customers spend ($5200 - k, $5200 + k) for
an air ticket to European countries, what is the value of k?

36. The amount a customer spends on a single visit to Park & Save supermarket has a normal
distribution with mean $75 and standard deviation $21. Park & Saves Supermarket wishes to
introduce a minimum amount for which credit cards may be used, which enables 80% of
customers to pay by credit card. At how much should this credit card minimum be set?

37. In a very large class in world history, the final examination scores have a mean of 66.5 and a
standard deviation of 12.6. Assume the scores are normally distributed. The teachers are
discussing which method should be used as the grading criteria.

(a) Method 1, standard grading. Grade A are graded to those who get more than 78 marks. What
percentage of the students should get grade A?
(b) Method 2, relative grading. If grade A is given to the top 11.7% of the students, what is the
minimum score to get grade A?

38. Peter goes to school by bus every day. It may assume that the journey time is normally
distributed with mean of 30 minutes and standard deviation of 5 minutes.

(a) Peter starts his journey to school at 9:00a.m. and his first lesson begins at 9:40a.m. What is the
probability that he will be late?
(b) If there is 93.7% chance that Peter would spend less than k minutes on the journey to school,
what is the value of k?

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39. A visa card company is analysing the monthly spending of its card holders and find that the
monthly spending follows a normal distribution with mean of $3,000 and standard deviation of
$800.

(a) What percentage of the spending is more than $4000 a month?

(b) What is the probability that a card holder will spend between $2500 and $4500 in a month?
(c) What is the minimum spending to join the lucky draw if the top 5% of customers who spend
most in a month can join the lucky draw?

40. The daily water consumption of a Hong Kong resident follows a normal distribution with mean
135 liters and standard deviation 36 liters.

(a) Find the probability that a randomly selected Hong Kong resident consumes at most 180 liters of
water on a particular day.
(b) Given that the probability a randomly selected Hong Kong resident consumes more than r liters
of water on a particular day is 0.6915. What is the value of r?

41. The length of a coil of metal wire follows a normal distribution with mean 551.15 m and
standard deviation 15 m.

(a) Find the probability that the length of a randomly selected coil of metal wire is longer than 545
m?
(b) If the length of a coil of metal wire is shorter than W m, the customer can claim for a refund.
Suppose 2% of the metal wires are qualified for refund. What is the value of W?

42. Johnny is a doctor. On the average, he spends 7 minutes on one patient and the standard
deviation is 1.2 minutes. Suppose the consultation time is normally distributed.

(a) What is the probability that he spends 5.5 to 6.4 minutes on one patient?
(b) What is the probability that he spends less than 9.7 minutes on one patient?
(c) Suppose there are 95% cases that Johnny spends 7 - T to 7 + T minutes on one patient, what is
the value of T?
(d) There are 8 patients waiting for consultation in the clinic. What is the probability he will spend
less than 9.7 minutes on exactly 6 patients?

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43. A tutorial school organizes mock examination for students to prepare for the DSE examination.
Each student has to pay $800 enrollment fee to take place in the mock examination. A
certificate will be awarded to each student according to the relative performance by using the
following system:

Award Score
High Distinction the top 6%
Distinction the next 12%
Credit the next 32%
Merit the next 20%
Participation the remaining 30%

Suppose the score obtained by an individual participant follows a normal distribution with mean
70 marks and standard deviation 11 marks.

(a) What proportion of participant gets more than 95 marks?

(b) The range for a participant to get the Certificate of Credit is (R1, R2). Find the values of R1
and R2.
(c) Scholarship will be issued to students who gets good grade in the mock examination. Each
student who results as high distinction will have $2000 while each student who results as
distinction will have $1000. Use W to denote the profit earned by the school from an enrolled
student (which is the enrollment fee minus the scholarship the student gets). Present the
probability distribution function of W in a table. Hence, find the expectation of W.

44. The monthly salary of an employee in ABC company is normally distributed with mean $12000
and standard deviation $1000. There is a 5% salary increment for every employee after the
New Year.

(a) What are the mean and standard deviation of the monthly salary after the salary adjustment?
(b) If there is 15% of the employees earns less than $k per month after the salary adjustment.
What is the value of k?

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45. May and Sam own a cafe together. The monthly revenue of the cafe follows a normal
distribution with mean $45,000 and standard deviation $8,000.

(a) What is the probability that the monthly revenue of the cafe is between $35,000 and $41,800 in
a month?
(b) There is 67% chance that the monthly revenue of the cafe is less than $K. Find the value of K.
(c) In each month, besides a basic salary of $7000, 30% of the revenue of the cafe will goes to
May's salary. Find the expectation and variance of May’s monthly salary.
(d) What is the probability that May's monthly salary will be less than $17,000 in a month?

46. The manager of a local logistic company is reviewing the cost and the service charge of the
delivery service. Packages are classified as small size, middle size, and large size and the
delivery cost is calculated based on the weight of the package and the traveling distance.
According to the record, the delivery cost of a small size package follows a normal distribution
with mean $60 and standard deviation $12.

(a) What is the probability that the delivery cost of a small size package is $40 or more?
(b) There is 87.9% of the delivery cost of a small size package is more than $M. Find the value of
M.
(c) The service charge is currently calculated by the formula, Y = 200 + 1.8X, where X is the
delivery cost for the package. Find the mean and the standard deviation of the service charge
of the delivery of a small size package.
(d) Instead of calculating the service charge by the original formula, the manager wants to fix the
service charge of delivering a small size package at $350. What proportion of small size
package will be charged more by the new pricing system than the original pricing system?

47. The monthly salary of the employees in a company follows a normal distribution with mean
$15,000 and standard deviation $500.

(a) What is the probability that the monthly salary of an employee is higher than $16,000?
(b) There are 85% of all employees with monthly salary less than $t. Find the value of t.
(c) The salary of each employee will be increased by 10%. Find the (i) mean and (ii) standard
deviation of the adjusted monthly salary.
(d) The manager of the company claims that over 20% of the employees would have monthly
salary more than $17,000 after the adjustment. Is it true? Support your answer with
calculation.

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48. Eva goes to Jennifer’s beauty salon every Sunday. According to her experience, the waiting
time to see Jennifer is normally distributed with mean 10 minutes and standard deviation 4
minutes. The facial treatment time is normally distributed with mean 55 minutes and standard
deviation 5 minutes. The waiting time and facial treatment time are independent.

(a) What is the probability that Eva waits for less than 5 minutes to see Jennifer?
(b) Using X to represent the waiting time and Y represents the facial treatment time, write down the
distribution of total time (waiting time plus facial treatment time) Eva spends in Jennifer’s
Beauty Salon.
(c) Eva arrives the Salon at 6:30p.m. What is the probability that she leaves the Salon before 7:30
p.m.?

49. John is an office assistant working in a large lawyer firm. Every morning, he has to handle the
post mails. On one hand, he will collect post mails from colleagues; on the other hand, he will
distribute the arrived post mails to colleagues. Suppose the time he spends on collecting mails
each morning follows a normal distribution with mean 40 minutes and standard deviation 12
minutes; while the time he spends on delivering mails follows a normal distribution with mean
65 minutes and standard deviation 8 minutes. It is reasonable to assume that the time he
spends on colleting mails and the time he spends on delivering mails are independent.

(a) What is the probability that in a particular morning he finishes the two jobs within 2 hours?
(b) What is the probability that he finishes the two jobs within 100 minutes?
(c) There is 10% chance that he would use more than M minutes to finish the two jobs. What is
the value of M?

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50. A beauty care company sells bottles of lotion X, labelled as net content of 100 mL. The net
content in a bottle is not really a constant. The machine fills the bottles with the net content
per bottle follows a normal distribution with mean 100 mL and standard deviation 5 mL.

(a) The company claims that 93.7% of all bottles contain at least K mL. Find the value of K.
(b) What proportion of bottles has net content less than 90 mL?

A customer complained that the volume of the lotion X is less than expected. After receiving
the complaint, the Consumer Council would randomly select 3 bottles of lotion X from a
supermarket for checking. If any one of the bottles with net content less than 90 mL, the
company will be fined for $30,000.

(c) What is the probability that the company will be fined for $30,000 after the checking?
(d) The senior manager wants to review the case before receiving the investigation report from the
Consumer Council. Write a simple summary about the volume of lotion X in a bottle and the
chance of being fined by the Consumer Council.

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Chapter 3

Sampling Distributions and Central Limit Theorem

1. Suppose the volume of a bottle of cola follows a normal distribution with mean 1.25 litres and
standard deviation 0.1 litre.

(a) Random samples of two bottles of cola are selected and packed in bags. The sample mean
volume of a bottle of cola in each bag is recorded. What are (i) the expectation and (ii) the
standard error of the sample mean?
(b) Random samples of four bottles of cola are selected and packed in bags. The sample mean
volume of a bottle of cola in each bag is recorded. What are (i) the expectation and (ii) the
standard error of the sample mean?
(c) Random samples of six bottles of cola are selected and packed in bags. The sample mean
volume of a bottle of cola in each bag is recorded. What are (i) the expectation and (ii) the
standard error of the sample mean?

2. The downloading time of a software follows a normal distribution with mean 12 seconds and
standard deviation 2.5 seconds. Random samples of 5 downloading times are selected and the
average downloading time for each sample is recorded. What are (a) the expectation and (b)
the standard error of the average downloading time?

3. The length of metal wire produced in a factory has mean of 25 cm and standard deviation of 0.2
cm. Random samples of 35 pieces of metal wire are selected for checking. What are (a)
the expectation and (b) the standard error of the average length of the metal?

4. The lifetime of a new brand of battery is normally distributed with mean of 8200 hours and
standard deviation of 50 hours. Every 40 batteries of this brand is packed and sold in
supermarkets. What are (a) the expectation and (b) the standard error of the average lifetime of
a pack of battery?

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5. The values of the accounts payable for a bookstore are normally distributed with a population
mean of $2600.00 and standard deviation of $150.00. If an auditor takes many samples of size
16 from the population of accounts payable, what are (a) the expectation and (b) the standard
error of the sample mean amount?

6. In a factory, it is known that 9% of the products are defective. Random samples of 80 items
are selected regularly for inspection. What are (a) the expectation and (b) the standard error of
the sample proportion of defective item?

7. In a city, it is known that 20% of the residents is left-handed. What are (a) the expectation and
(b) the standard error of the sample proportion of left-handed resident for many samples with
sample size 75?

8. In a survey conducted by the credit card company, it is shown that 70% of the customers would
not pay the bill by monthly instalment if the credit amount is less than $10,000. Many samples,
each with sample size 40, are selected and the sample proportion of customers not paying the
bill by monthly instalment in each sample is calculated. What are (a) the expectation and (b)
the standard error of the sample proportions?

9. BIG Bus Corporation has to conduct surveys regularly to evaluate its service quality.
According to previous studies, 87% of the passengers refuse the invitation to take part in such
surveys. Repeatedly, random samples of 350 passengers are invited to take part in the survey.
What are (a) the expectation and (b) the standard error of sample proportions of passengers who
refuse the invitation to take part in the survey?

10. Suppose the supportive rate for Johnny to be the next President is 65%. A public opinion
centre repeatedly interview random samples of 400 voters and the sample proportions of people
supporting Johnny to be the next President are recorded. What are (a) the expectation and (b)
the standard error of the sample proportions of people supporting Johnny to be the next
President?

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Chapter 4 Estimation

1. The length of a piece of paper produced in a factory has an unknown population mean and
population standard deviation of 0.02 inch. In order to estimate the population mean length, a
random sample of 100 papers is selected and the sample mean length is 10.998 inches.

(a) Give a point estimate of the population mean length.

(b) Compile the sampling error at 95% confidence level.
(c) Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population mean length.

2. In order to estimate the population mean weight (kg) of new born baby, a random sample of 20
new born babies is taken and the data are as follows:
2.54, 2.84, 2.97, 2.77, 3.05, 3.15, 3.18, 2.97, 2.63, 3.01,
3.03, 2.99, 3.52, 3.58, 3.34, 3.24, 2.87, 2.80, 2.76, 2.61

Assume the weight of new-born babies follow a normal distribution with unknown population
mean and population standard deviation is 0.45 kg.

(a) Give a point estimate of the population mean weight.

(b) Compile the sampling error at 90% confidence level.
(c) Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate of the population mean weight.

3. A travel agency frequently arranges seminars in different topics for promotion purpose. The
manager wants to estimate the population mean time for one seminar. A random sample of 40
seminars has the sample mean of 75 minutes. It is believed that the population standard
deviation of time require for a seminar is 10 minutes. Construct a 95% confidence interval
estimate of the population mean time required for one seminar.

4. A paint supply store wants to estimate the true population mean amount of paint contained in
one-gallon cans purchased from a nationally known manufacturer. It is reasonable to assume
that the amount of paint in a can follows a normal distribution with unknown population mean
and standard deviation of 0.02 gallon. A random sample of 50 cans of paint is selected from a
supermarket, and the sample mean amount of paint is 0.995 gallon. Set up a 99% confidence
interval estimate of the true population mean amount of paint included in a one-gallon can.

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5. Ann is a quality control manager. She needs to check the volume of milk filled in bottles in a
production line. The volume of milk in a bottle follows a normal distribution with unknown
mean and population standard deviation of 20 mL. In order to estimate the population mean
volume of milk in a bottle, a random sample of 50 bottles is selected. It is found that the
sample mean volume is 345 mL.

(a) Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for the population mean volume of milk in a
bottle.
(b) It is suggested to do the second round of inspection. This time, the sample size is 100. What
is the sampling error at 95% confidence level?

6. A salon wants to conduct a survey in order to study the consumption pattern of its consumers.
The population mean spending on visiting salon per month is unknown with the population
standard deviation is assumed to be $220. A random sample of 55 customers is selected and
the sample mean spending on visiting salon per month is $840.

(a) Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate for the population mean spending by a customer
on visiting salon per month.
(b) It is suggested to do the second round of inspection. This time, the sample size is 120. What
is the sampling error at 90% confidence level?

7. The quality control team is discussing how large a sample should be taken when checking the
length of the metal wire produced in the factory. The production standard deviation is known
to be 3 cm. Compile the sampling error at 99% confidence level when

(a) the sample size is 30;

(b) the sample size is 50;
(c) the sample size is 100.

8. The quality control team is discussing how large a sample should be taken when checking the
length of the metal wire produced in the factory. The production standard deviation is known
to be 3 cm. It is targeted to have the point estimate to be within 1 cm of the population mean
length of the metal wire at 99% confidence level. How large should be the sample size?

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9. The government is studying the development of cruise tour in Hong Kong. One measurement
is the amount of money a customer is willing to spend for a cruise tour. The population mean
spending is unknown and the population standard deviation is reasonable to be assumed as $900.
In order to estimate the population mean spending a customer is willing to spend, how large a
sample should be taken so that the point estimate is within $75 of the population mean with
95% confidence?

10. A survey is conducted in order to study the monthly working hours of the part-time workers in a
company. The monthly working hours of a random sample of 13 part-time workers from a
company are:

83 58 70 56 76 64 80 76 70 97 68 78 108

It is assumed that the monthly working hours is normally distributed.

(a) Find the sample mean and sample standard deviation.

(b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the estimate of the population mean monthly working
hours of a part-time worker in the company.

11. Ten randomly selected i-cable TV customers were asked about the number of hours spends on
watching television per week. The results are:

82 66 90 84 75 88 80 94 110 91

Assume the number of hours spend on watching television is normally distributed.

(a) Find the sample mean and sample standard deviation.

(b) Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate for the population mean number of hour spends on
watching television per week by i-cable TV customers.

12. A random sample of 20 students is taken from a secondary school. The sample mean number
of hours a student spends in the public library in a week is 6.87 hours and the sample standard
deviation is 1.76 hours. It is reasonable to assume that the number of hours spends in the
public library follows a normal distribution. Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for
the population mean number of hours a student spends in the public library in a week.

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13. Below are the scores of 12 randomly selected students in 2014 taking SAT mathematics
examination. Assume the scores of all students follow a Normal distribution.

457 419 343 539 394 413 392 421 439 340 493 339

Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the population mean marks in this examination.

14. A telephone survey was conducted to estimate the population proportion of household with a
personal computer. Of the 380 households surveyed in the sample, 290 had a personal
computer.

(a) Give a point estimate for the proportion in the population who have a personal computer.
(b) Give the sampling error at 95% confidence level.
(c) Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of household with a
personal computer.

15. In a sample of 600 randomly selected residents, only 220 favoured Mike to be the next
president. The population proportion of residents supporting Mike to be the next president is to
be estimated.

(a) Give a point estimate for the population proportion of residents supporting Mike.
(b) Calculate the sampling error at 99% confidence level.
(c) Construct a 99% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of all residents
supporting Mike to be the next president.

16. Joey is asked to estimate the population proportion of people driving “Benz” in a commercial
building in Central. She randomly identified 200 cars in the parking lot, of which she found 17
to be Benz. Construct a 90% confidence interval for the population proportion of people
driving “Benz” in this building.

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17. A bank offers three types of welcoming gifts to VISA card applicants.
Gift A: $400 supermarket coupon
Gift B: a 2-persons tea set voucher
Gift C: 8 sets of movie tickets

The choice made by a random sample of 40 applicants is as follow:

B A B A A A C A
A B A A B A A B
B B A A B A B A
A B A C A C A C
A A A A A A B A

Construct a 98% confidence interval of the population proportion of applicants would choose
Gift A as the welcoming gift.

18. A magazine has conducted a survey to investigate the opinion of teenagers to two brands of
chips. In a sample of 140 boys, 66 of them prefer brand A chips. In a sample of 180 girls,
110 of them prefer brand A chips.

(a) Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of boys preferring
brand A chips.
(b) Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of girls preferring
brand A chips.
(c) Which estimation, for boys or for girls, has a larger sampling error at 90% confidence level?
Explain your answer with calculation.

19. A survey is carried out to study whether the customers are satisfied with the service provided by
the shop. Out of a total of 300 randomly selected customers, 168 customers are satisfied with the
service. Furthermore, among these 300 customers, the sample mean spending on one visit to
the shop is $820 and the sample standard deviation is $165.

(a) Construct a 98% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of customers who
are satisfied with the service.
(b) Construct a 98% confidence interval estimate for the population mean spending on one visit to
the shop.

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20. After marking all answer scripts of “General Mathematics”, the teacher takes a random sample
of 12 answer scripts for the academic board to review. The marks of these 12 randomly
selected answer scripts are:
53 78 64 83 77 59 65 81 71 69 75 63
It is assumed that the mark of “General Mathematics” follows a normal distribution.

(a) Find the sample mean and the sample standard deviation.
(b) Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for the population mean mark of “General
Mathematics”.
(c) The teacher selects another random sample to estimate the population mean. This time, the
sample size is 36, and the sample mean and sample standard deviation are 70 marks and 9.4
marks respectively. What is the sampling error at the 95% confidence level?

21. It is known that the weight of a melon from a farm is normally distributed. It is believed that
the population standard deviation of the weight of a melon is 0.9 kg while the population mean
is unknown. In order to estimate the population mean, a random sample of 120 melons is
taken and the sample mean is 4 kg.

(ai) Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for the population mean weight of melons.
(aii) The researcher suggests conducting the study again so that the point estimate should be within
±0.1 kg from the true population mean at the 95% confidence level. How large should the
sample size be?

Another random sample is taken in order to estimate the population proportion of melons which
weigh heavier than 4.2 kg. In a sample with 200 randomly selected melons, 30 of them weigh
heavier than 4.2 kg.

(b) Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of melons which
weigh heavier than 4.2 kg.

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Chapter 5 Time Series

1. The table below shows the quarterly sales volume of hamburgers (in thousands) in a fast food
restaurant in years 2017 – 2019.
Year Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
2017 471 389 405 435
2018 462 368 395 428
2019 448 382 402 411

(a) Describe the sales of hamburgers by referring to the time series plot.
(b) Find the trend by calculating the 4-period moving average.
(c) Find the seasonal variation for Quarter 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.

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2. The following table gives the quarterly manufacturers' sales of women's footwear (in ten thousand
pairs).

Year Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4

2015 18.9 17.5 16.1 15.3
2016 17.8 15.8 14.3 13.8
2017 16.2 14.5 13.1 12.2

(a) Describe the sales of women’s footwear by referring to the time series plot.
(b) Find the trend by calculating the 4-period moving average.
(c) Find the seasonal variation for Quarter 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.

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3. The following table gives the daily number of telephone calls received by a call center.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Week 1 4 7 8 11 18
Week 2 3 8 10 13 21
Week 3 6 9 13 17 28

(a) Describe the number of telephone calls received by referring to the time series plot.
(b) Find the trend by calculating the 5-period moving average.
(c) Find the seasonal variation for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
respectively.

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4. The table below shows the quarterly sales of umbrellas sold at a clothing store over the past 3
years.

Year Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4

1 125 153 106 88
2 118 161 133 102
3 138 144 113 80

Sales
200

150

100

50

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Period

(a) Describe the sales of television set by referring to the time series plot.
(b) Find the trend by calculating the 4-quarter moving average.
(c) Find the seasonal variation for Quarter 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.

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Chapter 6 Price Index

1. Referring to the following table, calculate Laspeyres Price Index for year 2018 and 2019 by
using year 2017 as base year. Interpret the findings.

Item 2017 2018 2019

Quantity Price Quantity Price Quantity Price
Flour 60 $25 50 $24 55 $22
Egg 80 $1.2 90 $1.1 95 $1.2
Salt 30 $3.5 25 3.3 35 $3.0

2. Referring to the following table, calculate Paasche Price Index for year 2012 and 2013
respectively by using year 2011 as base year. Interpret the findings.

Item 2011 2012 2013

Quantity Price Quantity Price Quantity Price
A 30 $250 25 $300 18 $330
B 70 $120 75 $145 70 $155
C 80 $100 75 $130 60 $180
D 50 $80 60 $70 70 $65

3. Referring to the following table, calculate Laspeyres Price Index and Paasche Price Index for
year 2016 and 2017 respectively by using year 2015 as base year.

Item 2015 2016 2017

Quantity Price Quantity Price Quantity Price
Magazine 60 $25 50 $26 30 $22
Fiction 80 $120 60 $130 65 $135
Comic books 30 $35 20 $28 15 $25

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4. Referring to the following table, by using year 2011 as base year, calculate Laspeyres Price
Index for year 2012, 2013, 2014 respectively and interpret the findings.

Item 2011 2012 2013 2014

Quantity Price Quantity Price Quantity Price Quantity Price
Shirts 100 $120 90 $135 85 $140 80 $150
Pants 80 $140 75 $145 65 $155 70 $165
Shoes 50 $250 45 $275 40 $280 30 $270

5. Referring to the following table, by using year 2015 as base year, calculate Paasche Price Index
for year 2016, 2017 respectively and interpret the findings.

Item 2015 2016 2017

Quantity Price Quantity Price Quantity Price
Rice 80 $100 90 $120 85 $130
Beef 75 $80 60 $120 50 $140
Pork 90 $70 85 $80 95 $85
Vegetable 60 $40 70 $45 80 $55

6. Below are the prices and expenditure weights of different items in year 2015, 2016, and 2017 in
a city:

Item Price in 2015 Price in 2016 Price in 2017 Expenditure

weight
Food 50 52 55 40%
Fuel 25 27 30 25%
Clothes 15 17 20 20%
Education 100 90 85 15%

(a) Calculate the CPIs in 2016 and in 2017 respectively by using 2015 as base year.
(b) Calculate the percentage changes in prices from 2015 to 2016 and from 2016 to 2017
respectively.

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7. Below are the expenditure weights and prices of different food items under the category food at
home in year 2011, 2012, 2013 in a European city.

Item Expenditure Price in Price in Price in

weight 2011 2012 2013
Bread and Cereal 20% 80 84 87
Meat 15% 120 110 102
Fish and Seafood 25% 200 192 181
Milk and Eggs 10% 40 42 44
Vegetables 20% 60 66 68
Fruits 10% 70 75 77

(a) Which food item(s) experienced price rise from 2011 to 2013?
(b) Which food item(s) experienced price drop from 2011 to 2013?
(c) Calculate the sub-CPIs (food at home) in 2012 and 2013 by using 2011 as base year.
(d) Calculate the percentage changes in prices from 2011 to 2012 and from 2012 to 2013
respectively.

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8. By using information in the following table and graph, calculate the CPIs in 2011 and 2012 by
using 2010 as the base year.

Item Price in 2010 Price in 2011 Price in 2012

Food & Beverages 50 60 68
Housing 80 88 92
Apparel 30 33 34
Transportation 35 32 30
Medical Care 25 35 40
Recreation 10 12 15
Education & Communication 100 110 110
Other Goods & Service 50 52 55

9. Below are the CPIs for three different cities from 2010 to 2013.

City CPI in 2010 CPI in 2011 CPI in 2012 CPI in 2013

A 100 97.5 96.9 96.3
B 100 105 108 110
C 100 109 118 128

(a) Which city experienced deflation from 2010 to 2013?

(b) Calculate the percentage changes in prices from 2012 to 2013 for city A, B, and C respectively.
(c) Which city experienced the highest percentage rise in prices from 2012 to 2013?

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10. Below are the sub-CPIs of different categories in a city from 2011 to 2014:

Category CPI in 2011 CPI in 2012 CPI in 2013 CPI in 2014

Food 104 109 115 120
Transportation 99 97.5 96 95.5
Power 97 95 91 90
Clothing 101 103 104.5 106

(a) Calculate the percentage changes in prices from 2011 to 2014 for the four categories.
(b) Which category experienced the highest percentage rise in prices from 2011 to 2014?
(c) Which category experienced the highest percentage drop in prices from 2011 to 2014?

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