AP Statistics :: Quiz 3 :: Shubleka Name______________________________ 

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Problem 1 (15 points)

Approximately 30% of the calls to an airline reservation phone line result in a reservation being made.

a. Suppose that an operator handles 10 calls. What is the probability that none of the 10 calls result in a
reservation?
b. What assumption did you make to calculate the probability in part a?
c. What is the probability that at least one call results in a reservation being made?

Problem 2 (25 points)

Consider a game in which a red die and a blue die are rolled. Let  xR  denote the value showing on the red die
and define  xB  similarly for the blue die.

a. Find the probability distribution of  xR  , then use it to determine the mean, variance, and standard
deviation of  xR  .
b. What are the values of the mean, variance, and standard deviation of  xB  ? 
c. Suppose that you are offered to play two games:
Game 1: Costs $7 to play, and you win  y1 dollars, where  y1  = xR + xB 
Game 2: Does not cost anything to play initially, but you “win”  3y2 dollars, where  y2  = xR - xB  . If 
y2  is negative, you must pay that amount; if it is positive, you receive that amount.
Find the ‘earnings variables’  e1 and  e2  for each game.
d. What are the means and standard deviations of  e1 and  e2  ?
e. Based on your answers to part d), which game would you play and why?

Problem 3 (10 points)

A multiple-choice exam consists of 50 questions. Each question has five choices, of which only one is
correct. Suppose that the total score on the exam is computed as  y = x1 - 1 4  x2  where  x1 = number of correct
responses and  x2 = number of incorrect responses. (This transformation is known as the correction of
guessing)

a. It can be shown that if a totally unprepared student answers all 50 questions just by selecting one of
the five answers at random, then  m x1  = 10 and  m x2  = 40 . What is the mean value of the total score 
y ? Does this surprise you? Why?
b. Describe how you would determine the variance and standard deviation of  y or explain why it is
impossible to determine.