Probability & Statistics Exercises

Chapter 5 and 6
1. There are 5 routes available between A and B; 4 between B and C; and 7 between C and D. What is
the total number of available routes between A and D, if you go through points B and C?
2. A college planning committee consisting of 3 freshmen, 4 sophomores, 5 juniors, and 2 seniors. A
subcommittee of 4, consisting of 1 individual from each class, is to be chosen. How many different
subcommittees are possible?

3. Second year computer science student of AASTU were categorized based up on their sex and
residence according to the following

Residence
Sex Urban Rural Total
Male 10 20 30
Female 5 15 20
Total 15 35 50

a) What is the probability that the student is female given that the selected student is rural?
b) What is the probability that the student is urban given that the selected student is male?

4. The diameter of electric cable, say X, is assumed to be a continuous random variable with pdf:
f(x)= kx(1-x2), 0≤x<1
0 Otherwise

a) Determine K
b) Find p(x>0.5)
c) Find E(X)
d) Var(X)

5. Assume that each child who is born is equally likely to be a boy or a girl.
If a family has two children, what is the probability that both are girls given that (a) the eldest is a
girl, (b) at least one is a girl?
6. Let A and B be two events. Suppose that P(A) = 0.4, P(B) = 0.5, and
P(A ∩ B) = 0.1. Find the probability that A or B will occur, but not both.
7. How many different letter sequences can be obtained by rearranging the letters in the word TATTOO?
8. In how many ways can a committee of 4 be formed from 10 men and 12 women if it is to have
a) 2 men and 2 women?
b) 1 man and 3 women?
c) 4 men?
d) 4 people regardless of sex?
9. Let A and B be two events in a sample space for which P(A) = 2/3,
P(B) = 1/6, and P(A ∩ B) = 1/9. What is P(A U B)?
10. Let E and F be two events for which one knows that the probability that
at least one of them occurs is 3/4. What is the probability that neither E nor
F occurs?
11. Suppose events D1and D2represent disasters with P(D1) = 0.003and P(D2) = 0.004. If the two events
are independent , what is the probabilitythat at least one of the disasters will occur?
12. By referring the standard normal distribution,what is the probability of obtaining a Z value of
a) at least 1.25? b) atmost-1.25?

1
 Probability & Statistics Exercises
c) between -1.96 and 1.96? d) between 1.22 and 1.85?
13. By referring the standard normal distribution, find z* which satisfies
a)P(Z>z*)= 0.95 b) P(Z<z*)=0.8
A study found that for 60% of the couples who have been married 10 years or less, both spouses work.
A sample of 10 couples who have been married 10 years or less are selected from marital records
available at a local courthouse. We are interested in the number of couples in this sample in which
both spouses work. What is the probability that this number is:
a) 7 or more?
b) 3 or fewer?
14. Poultry sells eggs to local markets. From past experience, 10% of the eggs are rotten. If we buy 10
eggs by selecting randomly, what will be the probability that
a. no egg is rotten?
b. 2 of the eggs are rotten?
c. at least 2 eggs are rotten?
d. at most 9 eggs are rotten?
15. Many samples of water, all the same size, are taken from a river suspected of having been polluted by
irresponsible operators at a sewage treatment plant. The number of coliform organisms in each sample
was counted; the average number of organisms per sample was 5. Assuming the number of organisms
to be poisson distributed, find the probability that
a) the next sample will contain at most 7 organisms.
b) the next sample will contain no organisms.
16. Customers in a bank arrive in random manner. Assuming that arrivals follow a poisson distribution
with mean 10 customers per 20 minutes, calculate the probability that
a. 5 customers will arrive within 20 minutes
b. no customer will arrive within 20 minutes
c. at least 1 customer will arrive within 20 minutes
d. 20 customers will arrive within one hour
17. Intelligence test scores, referred to as intelligence quotient or IQ scores, are based on characteristics
such as verbal skills, abstract reasoning power, numerical ability, and spatial visualization. If plotted
on a graph, the distribution of IQ scores approximates a normal curve with a mean of about 100. An
IQ score above 115 is considered superior. Studies of ‘‘intellectually gifted’’ children have generally
defined the lower limit of their IQ scores at 140; approximately 1% of the population have IQ scores
above this limit.
a) Find the standard deviation of this distribution.
b) What percent are in the ‘‘superior’’ range of 115 or above?
c) What percent of the population have IQ scores of 70 or below?
18. IQ scores for college graduates are normally distributed with a mean of 120 with a standard deviation
of 12. What is the probability of randomly selected graduate student with an IQ score
a) between 110 and 130? c) below 100?
b) above 140?
19. The time taken to complete a certain standard exam for deriving license by trainees is normally
distributed with a mean of 120 minutes and a standard deviation of 10 minutes.
If we randomly select one trainee, Calculate the probability that he/she will complete the exam
a. Between 110 and 130 minutes
b. After 120 minutes
c. Before 90 minute

2
 Probability & Statistics Exercises
Chapter 7
1. Briefly explain the difference between probabilistic and non probabilistic sampling techniques.
2. Let x be the meanof a sample selected ¿ a population
a. What is the mean of the sampling distribution of x ?
n
b. What is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of x ? Assume < 0.05
N
3. Describe the relationship between sample size and standard error.
4. What is the difference between sampling and non sampling error?
5. The mean number of a certain bacteria per plots of land is 950 with a standard deviation of 255.
However, the distribution of all bacteria in that area is skewed. If we study 100 sample plots of land,
calculate the mean, the standard error of x̄ and the probability that the total number of bacteria in the
100 plots of land will be less than 95000.
6. A population has a distribution that is skewed to the left. Indicate in which of the following cases the
central limit theorem apply to describe the sampling distribution of the sample mean
a. n=400 b. n=25 c. n=36
7. The time taken to complete Introductory Biology course by all students is normally distributed with a
mean of 120 minutes and a standard deviation of 16 minutes. Let x be the mean time taken to
complete this test by a random sample of 4 students.
ii. Calculate the mean and standard error of the sample mean and describe the shape of its
sampling distribution.
iii. What is the probability that the sample mean will be greater than 120 minutes?
iv. What is the probability that the sample mean will be between 116 and 124?
8. State the central limit theorem and describe its use in statistics.

3
Probability & Statistics Exercises