Practice Problems for Test 2.

1. Three light bulbs are chosen at random from 15 bulbs of which 5 are defective. Find
the probability that
(i) none is defective, ANS 0.2637
(ii) exactly one is defective , ANS 0. 4945
(iii) at least one is defective. ANS 0.7362
2. Of 10 girls in a class, 3 have blue eyes. If two of the girls are chosen at random, what
is the probability that
(i) both have blue eyes, ANS 0.06667
(ii) neither has blue eyes, ANS 0.4667
(iii) at least one has blue eyes? ANS 0.5333

3. Three bolts and three nuts are put in a box. If two parts are chosen at random, find the
probability that one is a bolt and one a nut. ANS 0.6
4. A class consists of 6 girls and 10 boys. If a committee of 3 is chosen at random from
the class, find the probability that
(i) 3 boys are selected, ANS 0.2142
(ii) exactly 2 boys are selected, ANS 0.4821
(iii) at least one boy is selected, ANS 0.96429
(iv) exactly 2 girls are selected. ANS 0.26 79

5. A coin, weighted so that P(H)=2/3 and P(T)=1/3, is tossed. If heads appears, then a
number is selected at random from the numbers 1 through 9; if tails appears, then a
number is selected at random from the numbers 1 through 5. Find the probability that an
even number is selected.
ANS = 58/135.

6. Three machines A, B and C produce respectively 50%, 30% and 20% of the total
number of items of a factory. The percentages of defective output of these machines are
3%, 4% and 5%. If an item is selected at random, find the probability that the item is
defective. ANS 0.037

7. 2% of the population has a certain disease. A test to detect who has the disease (event
D) has been developed. It turns out that 90% of those who have the disease test positive
(event +), while 95% of those who do not have the disease (event DC) test negative (event
-). (i) What is P(D +)? ANS 0.018
(ii) What is P(DC +)? ANS 0.049
(iii) What is P(+)?ANS 0.067
(iv) What is P(D ! +)? ANS 0.2686
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8. Suppose a test for TB has the following properties: if the person tested has TB, 99% of
time the test will return a positive result; if a person tested does not have TB, 95% of the
time the test will return a negative result. Among the test group, 2% actually have TB.
(i) What proportion of the tests will return a positive result? ANS 0.0688
(ii) What proportion of those tested positive actually have TB? ANS 0.2878

9. Consider the following results of a survey of smoking and gender.

Gender
Male
Female

Smoker
103
139

Nonsmoker
278
345

(a) What is the probability that a randomly selected person in the study is female?
ANS 0.5595
(b) What is the probability that a randomly selected smoker is female?
ANS 0.5744

10. In a certain college, 25% of the boys and 10% of the girls are studying mathematics.
The girls constitute 60% of the student body. If a student is selected at random and is
studying mathematics, determine the probability that the student is a girl.
ANS 3/8.
11. The probability that a regularly scheduled flight departs on time is P(D) = 0.83; the
probability that it arrives on time is P(A) = 0.82; and the probability that it departs and
arrives on time is P(D
A)=0.78. Find the probability that a plane (a) arrives on time
given that it departed on time, and
ANS: 78/83
(b) departed on time given that it has arrived on time.
ANS: 78/82
12. In a certain college, 4% of the men and 1% of the women are taller than 6 feet.
Furthermore, 60% of the students are women. Now if a student is selected at random and
is taller than 6 feet, what is the probability that the student is a woman?
ANS0.2727
13. Three machines A, B and C produce respectively 60%, 30% and 10% of the total
number of items of a factory. The percentages of defective output of these machines
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are respectively 2%, 3% and 4%. An item is selected at random and is found
defective. Find the probability that the item was produced by machine C. ANS: 0.16
14. . Suppose that the life of a certain type of electronic component has an exponential
distribution with a mean life of 500 hours. If X denotes the life of this component,
a) find the probability that the component will last at least 600 hours.
ANS: 0.3
b) If the component has been in operation for 300 hours, find the probability that the
component will last an additional 600 hours
ANS: 0.3

15. Let x be the number of times a certain machine malfunctions on any one day. The following is a distribution table for x:
X
Prob(x)

0
0.17

1
0.29

2
0.27

3
0.16

4
0.07

5
0.03

6
0.01

a) Find the mean of x

ANS: 1.8
b) Find the standard deviation of x
ANS: Variance = 1.8, std dev = 1.3416
16. The annual rate of return on stock indexes is approximately normal with a mean yearly return of 12% and standard deviation of 16.5%.
a) In what range do the middle 95% of all yearly returns lie?
ANS = -20.34% to 44.34%
b) In what proportion of years does the index gain 25% or more?
ANS = 0.215

17. The length of human pregnancies from conception to birth varies according to the distribution that is approximately normal with mean 266 days and standard deviation 16
days.
a) What percent of pregnancies last less than 240 days?
ANS = 5.2%
b) What percent of pregnancies last between 240 and 270 days?
ANS = 55.66%
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c) How long do the longest 20% of all pregnancies last?

ANS 279.46
18. The time x (minutes) for a lab assistant to prepare the equipment for a certain experiment is believed to have a uniform distribution over the interval a = 20 and b = 30; that
is, its corresponding density curve has constant height over the interval [20, 30].
a) What is the probability that preparation time exceeds 27 minutes?
ANS 0.3

b) Find the preparation mean time

ANS 25
c) What is the probability that preparation is within 2 minutes of the mean time?
ANS 0.4
19. Suppose that the error in the reaction temperature, in oC, for a controlled laboratory
experiment is a continuous random variable X having the density function

f ( x)

kx 4
0,

0 x 2
elsewhere.

a) Find k ANS 5/32

b) Find P(0 < X < 1). ANS 1/32

c) Find the mean of X ANS 5/3

20. Suppose X is an exponentially distributed random variable with parameter

Find the following probabilities:
(a) P( X 2)
(b) P( X 3.5)
(c) P( X 3)
(d ) P(1 X .5)
ANS: a) 0.9996 , b) 0.999999 , c) 0 d) 0.0183 )

4.

e) Find the mean and standard deviation of X.

ANS: mean= , std dev =

21. Let Z have a standard normal distribution N(0,1). Find the following probabilities:
(a) P(0 Z 1.43)
(b) P(0 Z )
(c ) P ( Z
ANS: a) 0.4236 b) 0.5 c) 0.0537 d) 0.8594

1.61)

(d ) P( 1.52

1.43)

22. The shelf life, in days, for bottles of a certain prescribed medicine is a random
variable having the density function

f ( x)

20,000
, x 0
( x 100) 3
0,
elsewhere.

Find the probability that a bottle of this medicine will have a shelf life of
(a) at least 200 days;
ANS: 1/9

(b) anywhere from 180 to 120 days.

ANS: 0.079
23. A continuous random variable X that can assume values between x = 2 and x = 5 has
a density function given by
2(1 x)
f ( x)
27
Find
(a) P( X 4)
ANS: a) 16/27,

(b) P(3

4)

b) 1/3

(c) Find the mean of X. ANS: 3.67

24. Let X denote the amount of time for which a book on two-hour reserve at a college
library is checked out by a randomly selected student, and suppose that X has density
function

f ( x)

x
,
2
0,

otherwise.

(b) P(0.5
Calculate (a) P( X 1)
ANS: a) 0.25, b) 0.50, c) 0.4375

1.5)

(c) P(1.5

X)

25. Suppose the reaction temperature X (in oC) in a certain chemical process has a
uniform distribution with A = - 5 and B = 5.
Compute:
(a) P( X 0)
(b) P( 2 X 2)
(c) P( 2 X 3)
ANS: a) 0.5 b) 0.4
c) 0.5
(d) Find the mean of X. ANS 0
26. Let X be a random variable with a standard normal distribution. Find
(i) P( 0.81 X 1.13) ANS 0.6618
(ii) P(0.53 X 2.03) ANS 0.2769
(iii) P(X

0.73) ANS 0.7673

27. Let X be normally distributed with mean 8 and standard deviation 4. Find:
(i) P(5 X 10). ANS 0.4648
(ii) P(10 X 15), ANS 0.2685
(iii) P( X
(iv) P( X

15), ANS 0.0401

5) . ANS 0.2266

28. Suppose the temperature T during June is normally distributed with mean 68o and
standard deviation 6o. Find the probability that the temperature is between 70o and 80o.
ANS: 0.3467
29. Suppose the heights H of 800 students are normally distributed with mean 66 inches
and standard deviation 5 inches. A student is invited to a basketball tryout if his/her
height belongs to the top 20% of the group. Find the minimum height that qualifies a
student for the tryout.
ANS 70.207
30. Suppose 30% of all electrical fuses manufactured by a certain company fail to meet municipal building standards. What is the probability that in a random sample of 10 fuses exactly 3 will
fail to meet municipal standards?
ANS: 0.2668
31. A bin of 10 light bulbs contains 4 that are defective. If 3 bulbs are chosen at random without
replacement from the bin, what is the probability that at least 2 bulbs in the sample are defective?
ANS: 0.33

Use the following for Questions 32 to 34: Suppose that a college determines the
following distribution for X = number of courses taken by a full-time student this
semester.
Value of X
Probability

3
0.07

4
?

5
0.25

6
0.28

32.The probability for X = 4 is missing. What is it?

Answer: 0.4

33.What is the average number of courses full-time students at this college take this
semester?
Answer: 4.74
34.What is the standard deviation of the number of courses full-time students at this
college take this semester?
Answer: 0.94