CHAPTER 3: SPECIAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION

1) A firm produces a product and finds that 10 per cent of its output is defective. A
small sample of five items is taken from the production line. Find the probability of
getting each of the following numbers of defective items in the sample: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
and 5 defective items respectively.

2) In an accountancy examination 55% of the students do not pass. If a class of 20

students takes the examination, find the probability that:
a) exactly 15 students pass
b) at least two students pass
c) more than 16 students pass

3) In a particular Statistics examination, approximately 75% of the students pass their

examination first attempt. If a class of 35 students takes the examination, find the
probability that:
a) exactly 13 pass
b) more than 32 pass

4) At a local swimming club, the expected number of people that can swim a kilometre
is 2.5 and the variance is 1.875. Find the probability that at least three people can
swim a kilometre.

5) Market research has shown that approximately 30% of the households in a certain
city uses brand A washing powder rather than brand B washing powder. A random
sample of 50 households was asked what they used.
a) What is the expectation of the number of households that use brand A washing
powder?
b) What is the probability that exactly four households use brand A washing
powder?
c) How large a sample would be needed for the probability of it containing at least
one household that uses brand A washing powder to be greater than 99%?

6) The successful sale of cakes in a local cake shop can be modelled binomially and the
probability of selling a piece of cake (if the customer enters the shop) is 0.25.

a) Find the probability that the shopkeeper will have at least two sales in the next
ten customers that visit his shop.
b) Calculate the least number of customers needed in order that the probability of
the shopkeeper getting at least one sale is greater than 99%.
CHAPTER 3: SPECIAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

7) The probability that a fisherman has a successful day’s fishing is p. The random
variable X is the number of days, in one particular week, that he has successful day’s
fishing. It is given that, in one particular week he has seven days fishing.
a) If the variance of X is 1.68, find the two possible values of p.
b) Taking p = 0.4, calculate the probability that during a seven-day fishing in that
particular week, the fisherman was not successful in any day.

8) In practicing diving a certain diver has five attempts at a particular height. The
probability that she succeeds at any one attempt is p.
a) Find an expression in term of p, for the probability that she succeeds exactly
twice.
b) Find an expression in term of p, for the probability that she succeeds exactly four
times.

The probability that she succeeds exactly twice is half the probability that she
succeeds exactly four times. Find the value of p.

Estimate the mean and the variance of the number of successful attempts.

9) Market research has shown that the cornflakes “Superman” is eaten by 20% of the
population.
a) Find the probability that in a random sample of 10 people exactly 3 people eat
“Superman” cornflakes.
b) Find the mean and the standard deviation of the number of people who eat
“Superman” cornflakes in a random sample of 25 people.
c) How large must a random sample be if the probability that it contains at least one
person who eat “Superman” cornflakes is to be greater then 0.95?

10) Two percent of the bulbs produced by a factory are not usable. Find the smallest
number of bulbs that must be examined so that the probability of obtaining at least
one-usable bulb exceeds 0.5.
CHAPTER 3: SPECIAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

ANSWERS

BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION

1) P  X  0   0.5905
P  X  1  0.3281
P  X  2   0.0729
P  X  3  0.0081
P  X  4   0.00045
P  X  5   0.00001

2)
a) 0.0049
b) 0.9999
c) 0.0003

3)
a) 0.000002
b) 0.00334

4) p  0.25, n  10, P  X  3  0.4744

5)
a) 15
b) 0.00014
c) 12.9

6)
a) 0.756
b) 16.01

7)
2 3
a) p or
5 5
b) 0.0280
CHAPTER 3: SPECIAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

8)
a) P  X  2   C2 p 1  p 
5 2 3

b) P  X  2   C4 p 1  p 
5 4 1

2 10 10
p ,  , 2 
3 3 9

9)
a) 0.2013
b)   5,   2
c) 14

10) 35