IE 230 Probability and Statistics in Engineering I

Fall 2014
Homework 1: Set Theory Review and Sample Spaces and Events (CN12.1; MR 2-1.1 to 2-1.3)
Given: Wednesday, August 26, 2013.
Due Date: Friday, September 5, 2013.
1. A prime number is an integer greater than 1 that has exactly two distinct divisors: 1 and itself. Let
A be the set of all prime numbers. Let B be the set of even integers. Let C be the set of all negative
integers. Draw a Venn diagram that describes the relationship among the sets A, B, and C.
2. If A and B are two events, use any of the set operations (for example, union, intersection, complement)
to describe the event that neither A nor B occurs.
3. Suppose A, B, and C are sets that are not mutually exclusive. Draw a Venn diagram to illustrate each
of the following:
(a) shade A B C
c
.
(b) shade A
c
B
c
.
(c) shade A (B C).
(d) shade (A B
c
) C.
(NOTE: A
c
means the complement of A. In notation from the book, the complement is denoted A

.)
4. Consider the random experiment whose procedure is to throw one six-sided die. Let the sample space
be S = {1, 2, . . . , 6}, where the number indicates the side facing up.
(a) Let E
1
= the outcome is an odd number. Write E
1
in set notation by listing the relevant outcomes.
(b) Let E
2
= the outcome is an even number. Write E
2
in set notation by stating a condition.
(c) Let E
3
= the outcome is less than three. Let E
4
= the outcome is 2. Write E
4
in terms of E
2
and E
3
.
(d) Are E
4
and E
3
mutually exclusive? Argue why or why not carefully using the denition.
5. A hospital administrator codes incoming patients suering gunshot wounds according to whether they
have insurance (coding 1 if they do and 0 if they do not) and according to their condition, which is rated
as good (g), fair (f) or serious (s). Consider an experiment that consists of the coding of such a patient.
(a) Give the sample space of this experiment.
(b) Let A be the event that the patient is in serious condition. Specify the outcomes in A.
(c) Let B be the event that the patient is uninsured. Specify the outcomes in B.
(d) Give all the outcomes in the event B
c
A. State in words the meaning of these outcomes.
6. Two 6-sided dice are tossed. One die is red and the other is white, so that they are distinguishable (that
is, we consider the event (3, 1) dierent from (1, 3)). Let A be the event that the sum of the dice is even,
B be the event that at least one die shows a 3 and C be the event that the sum of the dice is 7. Identify
the elements of:
(a) A B
(b) B
c
C
(c) A C
(d) A
c
B
c
C
c
7. A random experiment consists of measuring the weight of the carbon dioxide emitted by a coal red
power plant during a 4-hour period. Identify the sample space for this experiment.
8. Pieces of sample foam arrive from three suppliers and are mixed upon entry to the factory, but the original
supplier is identiable by a small tag on each foam piece. The pieces of sample foam are then classied
for conformance to specications. The results from a sample of 100 observations are summarized in the
table.
supplier conforms does not conform
1 18 2
2 17 3
3 50 10
Let A denote the event that a piece is from supplier 1 and B denote the event that the piece conforms
to specications.
(a) Each of the 100 replications of the random experiment produced one observation. Describe the
procedure that denes the experiment.
(b) Dene a sample space appropriate for this experiment, and write the events A and B in set notation
by listing the relevant outcomes.
(c) For how many of the 100 replications did A occur?
(d) In words, what does A
c
B mean?
(e) For how many of the 100 replications did A
c
B occur?
9. Let E, F, and G be three events. State expressions for the events:
(a) only F occurs
(b) exactly two of the events occur
(c) at least one of the events occurs
(d) E and G occur but F does not occur
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