MTL390: Statistical Methods
January 10, 2025
Practice Problems 2
Lecture 2: Revision of Probability Distribution
1. Determine the sample space for each of the following random experiments:
(a) A student is selected at random from a statistics lecture class and the student’s total marks
are determined.
(b) A coin is tossed three times, and the sequence of heads and tails is observed.
2. One urn contains three red balls, two white balls, and one blue ball. A second urn contains one
red ball, two white balls, and three blue balls:
(a) One ball is selected at random from each urn. Describe the sample space.
(b) If the balls in the two urns are mixed into a single urn and then a sample of three is drawn,
find the probability that all three colors are represented when the sample is selected:
i. With replacement.
ii. Without replacement.
3. A fair coin is continuously flipped. What is the probability that the first five flips are:
(a) H, T, H, T, T
(b) T, H, H, T, H
4. The first generation of particles is the coefficient of offsprings of a given particle. The next genera-
tion is formed by the offsprings of these members. If the probability that a particle has k offsprings
(split into k parts) is pk where p0 = 0.4, p1 = 0.3, p2 = 0.3, find the probability that there is
no particle in the second generation. Assume that the particles act independently and identically
irrespective of the generation.
5. A fair die is tossed once. Let A be the event that faces 1, 3, or 5 come up, B be the event that
faces 2, 4, or 6 come up, and C be the event that faces 1 or 6 come up. Show that A and C are
independent. Find P (A ∩ B or C occurs).
6. An urn contains four tickets marked with numbers 112, 121, 211, 222 and one ticket is drawn at
random. Let Ai (i = 1, 2, 3) be the event that the i-th digit of the number of the ticket drawn is
1. Discuss the independence of the events A1 , A2 , and A3 .
7. There are two identical boxes containing respectively 4 white and 3 red balls, and 3 white and 7
red balls. A box is chosen at random and a ball is drawn from it. Find the probability that the
ball is white. If the ball is white, what is the probability that it is from the first box?
8. The probability that an airplane accident which is due to structural failure is diagnosed correctly is
0.85 and the probability that an airplane accident which is not due to structural failure is diagnosed
correctly as due to structural failure is 0.15. If 30% of all airplane accidents are due to structural
failure, find the probability that an airplane accident is due to structural failure given that it has
been diagnosed as being due to structural failure.
9. The numbers 1, 2, 3, . . . , n are arranged in random order. Find the probability that the digits 1,
2, . . . , k (k < n) appear as neighbors in that order.
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10. In a town of n + 1 inhabitants, a person tells a rumor to a second person, who in turn, repeats it
to a third person, etc. At each step, the recipient of the rumor is chosen at random from the n
people available. Find the probability that the rumor will be told r times without returning to the
originator.
11. A secretary has to send n letters. She writes addresses on n envelopes and absentmindedly places
one letter in each envelope. Find the probability that at least one letter reaches the correct
destination.
12. A pond contains red and golden fish. There are 3000 red and 7000 golden fish, of which 200 and
500 respectively are tagged. Find the probability that a random sample of 100 red and 200 golden
fish will show 15 and 20 tagged fish, respectively.
