EXERCISE 6.

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1. In a basket containing 8 tomatoes, the probability of getting a ripe tomato is
0.2. Find the probability that this sample will contain;
(i) Exactly four ripe tomatoes
(ii) No ripe tomato
(iii) 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes
(iv) At least 7 ripe tomatoes

ANS ; 0.0459, 0.1678, 0.4404, 0.000085

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2. In a certain a certain village of people belong to “Nkima” clan. If a sample
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of 16 people is taken, what is expectation and variance of people belonging
to “Nkima” clan? ANS ; 4,3

3. The secretary of an NGO works 5 days a week (Monday to Friday) and her
probability of being late on any given day is 0.2.
(a) calculate the mean and variance of number of days she will be late in a
month consisting of 4 weeks.
(b) What is the probability of her being punctual for a whole week.
(c) Calculate expected number of completely punctual weeks on a year.
ANS ; a) 4,3.2 b)O.3277 c)15.7286

4. A random variable X is such that X~ B(n,0.2). Given that the mean of this
distribution is 3.2. Find;
(i) Value of n
(ii) Standard deviation. ANS ;16,1.6

5. Of the students of S.5 sciences, 70% are known to have got distinctions in
mathematics in their UCE. If a sample of 14 students is taken from this
class, find the most likely number of them to have got distinctions in their
UCE. ANS ;10

6. A box containing 15 green and red apples. Given that the chance of picking a
green apple is 0.3. Find the probability that;
(i) Exactly 5 green apples will be picked
(ii) Exactly 8 red apples will be picked.
(iii) Less than 3 green apple.
ANS ;0.2061, 0.0811, 0.01268
7. In a certain town 20% of the people are known to have hypetitis B virus. A
sample of 12 people is taken from this town, find the probability that;
(i) At least 7 will have the virus
(ii) Less than 4 will have the virus
(iii) More than 8 will have the virus
(iv) More than 3 and at most 8 will have the virus.
ANS ;0.0039, 0.9274, 0.0001, 0.2053

EXERCISE 6.5
1. A pair of dice is thrown 20 times. Find the probability of getting a
double six at least 3 times.
Ans : 0.0172
2. Given that X B (10,0.4 ) , find
(i) P ( X  7)
(ii) P ( X = 6)

(iii) P ( X  5) Ans : ( i ) 0.0548 ( ii ) 0.111 ( iii ) 0.633

3. X is B ( 4, p ) and P ( X = 4 ) = 0.0256 . Find P ( X = 2 ) . Ans : 0.3456

4. A couple is equally likely to produce a boy or a girl. Find the probability
that in a family of five children there are more boys than girls.
Ans : 0.5
5. In the mass production of bolts, it is found that 5% are defective. Bolts
are selected at random and put into packets of ten.
A packet is selected at random. Find the probability that it contains
a) Three defective bolts
b) Less than three defective bolts

Two packets are selected at random.

c) Find the probability that there are no defective bolts in either packet.
Ans : ( a ) 0.0105 ( b ) 0.988 ( c ) 0.358

6. In a test, there are ten multiple choice questions. For each question
there is a choice of four answers, only one of which is correct. A student
guesses each of the answers.
(a) Find the probability that he gets more than 7 correct.

He needs to obtain over half marks to pass and each question carries
equal weight.
 (b) Find the probability that he passes the test.
Ans : ( a ) 0.0004 ( b ) 0.0197
7. University student Joe misses 9 o’clock lectures through oversleeping.
The probability that he oversleeps is 0.4. Find the probability that, in a
nine – week term, with two 9 o’clock lectures each week, he misses
more than half of them.
Ans : 0.135
8. The random variable X has a binomial distribution with mean and
variance 3. Find P ( X  14 )
Ans : 0.197
9. The random variable X is distributed binomially with mean 2 and
variance 1.6. Find
a) the probability that X is less than 6
b) the most likely value of X Ans : ( a ) 0.994 ( b ) 2

10. A large number of groups, each consisting of 12 adults, are selected at

random from the population of a particular town. Given that 30% of the
adults in this town are car owners, calculate
a) the probability that a group contains not more than two car owners.
b) the mean and the standard deviation of the number of car owners in
the groups.
Ans : ( a ) 0.253 ( b ) 3.6,1.59

11. In a certain village, 80% of the villagers are known to have a

particular eye disorder. Twelve people are waiting to see the nurse.
a) What is the most likely number to have the eye disorder.
b) Find the probability that fewer than half have the eye disorder.
Ans : ( a ) 10 ( b ) 0.00039
12. It is given that
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Y B ( 9, p ) and that the standard deviation of Y is . Find the possible
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values of p. For each value of p find P (Y = 4 ) .
Ans : p = 0.1,0.9; 0.00744, 0.000827
13. The random variable X is such that X B ( n, p ) . It is known that
Var ( X )
= 0.3 and that X has mean 10.5. Determine the values of n and p
E(X )
Ans : n = 15, p = 0.7
14. A class of 16 pupils consists of 10 girls, 3 of whom are left-handed,
and 6 boys, only one of whom is left handed. Two pupils are to be
chosen at random from the class to act as monitors. Calculate the
probability that the chosen pupils will consist of;
(i) One girl and one boy.
(ii) One girl who is left-handed and one boy who is left handed.
(iii) Two left-handed pupils
(iv) At least one pupil who is left handed.

Ans : ( i ) 0.5 ( ii ) 0.025 ( iii ) 0.05 ( iv ) 0.45

15. In a bag there are six red counters, eight yellow counters and six
green counters. An experiment consists of taking a counter at random
from the bag, noting its colour and then replacing it in the bag. This
procedure is carried out ten times in all. Find
a) the expected number of red counters drawn
b) the most likely number of green counters drawn
c) the probability that not more than four yellow counters are drawn.
Ans : ( a ) 3 ( b ) 3 ( c ) 0.633

16. The probability of a manufactured item being defective is 0.1. A

batch consisting of a very large number of items is inspected as follows.
A random sample of five items is chosen. If this sample contains no
defective item, then the batch is accepted, while if the sample contains 3
or more defectives, it is rejected. If the sample includes either 1 or 2
defectives, then a second random sample of five items is chosen from
the batch. The batch will be accepted if this second sample contains no
defective item and will be rejected otherwise. Calculate the probability
that
(i) the first sample will result in the batch being accepted
(ii) the first sample will result in the batch being rejected
(iii) the second sample will be necessary and will result into the batch
being accepted.
Ans : ( i ) 0.590 ( ii ) 0.009 ( iii ) 0.237