Module MIS10090: Data Analysis for Decision Making

Week 7

Tutorial Questions: Continuous Probability Distributions

Question 1. Uniform distribution

It seems that people spend more and more time on social media. Research studies show that people
spend up to 2 hours and 20 mins on social media in a day 1. Assuming that the time spent on social
media may range from 0 up to 2 hours and 20 mins in a day, what is the probability that a person
spends between 1 hour and 1 hour 40 mins?

Question 2. Exponential distribution

The manager of a customer service has decided to monitor the number of calls received. On
average, there seems to be 20 calls per hour. What is the probability of receiving a call in:

a) The next 10 minutes?

b) The next 5 minutes?

Question 3. Standard Normal Distribution

Let us consider a continuous random variable Z which is standard normally distributed. Please
compute the following probabilities by a) using the New Cambridge Statistical Tables and b) using
the NORM.S.DIST formula in Excel. Please approximate your final results to four decimal places:

1. Less than -1.72

2. More than 2.09
3. Between -1.72 and 2.09

Question 4. Normal Distribution: Computing Probabilities

A coffee machine manufacturing company monitors the rate at which coffee is filtered. This process
can be assumed to be normally distributed with a mean (µ) equal to 130 mg/l (milligrams per litre)
and a variance (σ2) equal to 9. Please approximate your final results to four decimal places and
compute the aforementioned probabilities by a) using the New Cambridge Statistical Tables and b)
using the NORM.DIST formula in Excel.

What is the probability that:

a) The coffee filtering rate is less than 126 mg/l?

b) The coffee filtering rate is more than 133 mg/l?
c) The coffee filtering rate is between 127 and 131 mg/l?

1
https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-
infographic.html
Question 5. Normal Distribution: Finding the Distribution Value

If 95% of the coffee machines filter coffee according to a normally distributed process with a mean
(µ) equal to 130 mg/l (milligrams per litre) and a variance (σ2) equal to 9, what is the coffee filtering
rate corresponding to it? Please approximate your final result to four decimal places and compute it
by a) using the New Cambridge Statistical Tables and b) using the NORM.INV formula in Excel.