1.

A student arrives at a school X minutes after 08:00, where X may be assumed to be normally
distributed. On a particular day it is observed that 40 % of the students arrive before 08:30 and
90 % arrive before 08:55.
(a)

Find the mean and standard deviation of X.

(5)

(b)

The school has 1200 students and classes start at 09:00. Estimate the number of students
who will be late on that day.
(3)

(c)

Maelis had not arrived by 08:30. Find the probability that she arrived late.
(2)

At 15:00 it is the end of the school day, and it is assumed that the departure of the students from
school can be modelled by a Poisson distribution. On average, 24 students leave the school
every minute.
(d)

Find the probability that at least 700 students leave school before 15:30.
(3)

(e)

There are 200 days in a school year. Given that Y denotes the number of days in the year
that at least 700 students leave before 15:30, find
(i)

E(Y);

(ii)

P(Y > 150).

(4)
(Total 17 marks)

2.

The number of accidents that occur at a large factory can be modelled by a Poisson distribution
with a mean of 0.5 accidents per month.
(a)

Find the probability that no accidents occur in a given month.

(1)

(b)

Find the probability that no accidents occur in a given 6 month period.

(2)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

(c)

Find the length of time, in complete months, for which the probability that at least 1
accident occurs is greater than 0.99.
(6)

(d)

To encourage safety the factory pays a bonus of $1000 into a fund for workers if no
accidents occur in any given month, a bonus of $500 if 1 or 2 accidents occur and no
bonus if more than 2 accidents occur in the month.
(i)

Calculate the expected amount that the company will pay in bonuses each month.

(ii)

Find the probability that in a given 3 month period the company pays a total of
exactly $2000 in bonuses.
(9)
(Total 18 marks)

3.

The ten numbers x1, x2, ..., x10 have a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3.
10

Find the value of

(x

12) 2 .

i 1

(Total 6 marks)

4.

4
. The coin is tossed
7
P( X 3)
6 times and X denotes the number of heads observed. Find the value of the ratio
.
P( X 2)
A biased coin is weighted such that the probability of obtaining a head is

(Total 4 marks)

5.

Casualties arrive at an accident unit with a mean rate of one every 10 minutes.
Assume that the number of arrivals can be modelled by a Poisson distribution.
(a)

Find the probability that there are no arrivals in a given half hour period.
(3)

(b)

A nurse works for a two hour period. Find the probability that there are fewer than ten
casualties during this period.
(3)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

(c)

Six nurses work consecutive two hour periods between 8am and 8pm.
Find the probability that no more than three nurses have to attend to less than ten
casualties during their working period.
(4)

(d)

Calculate the time interval during which there is a 95 % chance of there being at least two
casualties.
(5)
(Total 15 marks)

6.

A discrete random variable X has a probability distribution given in the following table.

(a)

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

P(X = x)

0.15

0.21

0.13

0.07

If E(X) = 2.61, determine the value of p and of q.

(4)

(b)

Calculate Var (X) to three significant figures.

(2)
(Total 6 marks)

7.

The random variable X follows a Poisson distribution with mean .

(a)

Find if P(X = 0) + P(X = 1) = 0.123.

(4)

(b)

With this value of , find P(0 < X < 9).

(2)
(Total 6 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

8.

After a shop opens at 09:00 the number of customers arriving in any interval of duration t
t
minutes follows a Poisson distribution with mean
.
10
(a)

(i)

Find the probability that exactly five customers arrive before 10:00.

(ii)

Given that exactly five customers arrive before 10:00, find the probability that
exactly two customers arrive before 09:30.
(7)

(b)

Let the second customer arrive at T minutes after 09:00.

(i)

Show that, for t > 0,

t

P(T > t) = 1 e 10 .
10

(ii)

Hence find in simplified form the probability density function of T.

(iii)

Evaluate E(T).
(You may assume that, for n

and a > 0, lim t n e at 0 .)

t

(12)
(Total 19 marks)

9.

The random variable X follows a Poisson distribution with mean m and satisfies
P(X = 1) + P(X = 3) = P(X = 0) + P(X = 2).
(a)

Find the value of m correct to four decimal places.

(4)

(b)

For this value of m, calculate P(1 X 2).

(2)
(Total 6 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

10.

Tim throws two identical fair dice simultaneously. Each die has six faces: two faces numbered 1,
two faces numbered 2 and two faces numbered 3. His score is the sum of the two numbers
shown on the dice.
(a)

(i)

Calculate the probability that Tim obtains a score of 6.

(ii)

Calculate the probability that Tim obtains a score of at least 3.

(3)

Tim plays a game with his friend Bill, who also has two dice numbered in the same way. Bills
score is the sum of the two numbers shown on his dice.
(b)

(i)

Calculate the probability that Tim and Bill both obtain a score of 6.

(ii)

Calculate the probability that Tim and Bill obtain the same score.
(4)

(c)

Let X denote the largest number shown on the four dice.

16
.
81

(i)

Show that P(X 2) =

(ii)

Copy and complete the following probability distribution table.

(iii)

P(X = x)

1
81

Calculate E(X) and E(X2) and hence find Var(X).

(10)

(d)

Given that X = 3, find the probability that the sum of the numbers shown on the four dice
is 8.
(4)
(Total 21 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

11.

Mr Lee is planning to go fishing this weekend. Assuming that the number of fish caught per
hour follows a Poisson distribution with mean 0.6, find
(a)

the probability that he catches at least one fish in the first hour;
(2)

(b)

the probability that he catches exactly three fish if he fishes for four hours;
(2)

(c)

the number of complete hours that Mr Lee needs to fish so that the probability of
catching more than two fish exceeds 80 %.
(3)
(Total 7 marks)

12.

Testing has shown that the volume of drink in a bottle of mineral water filled by Machine A at
a bottling plant is normally distributed with a mean of 998 ml and a standard deviation of
2.5 ml.
(a)

Show that the probability that a randomly selected bottle filled by Machine A contains
more than 1000 ml of mineral water is 0.212.
(1)

(b)

A random sample of 5 bottles is taken from Machine A. Find the probability that exactly
3 of them each contain more than 1000 ml of mineral water.
(3)

(c)

Find the minimum number of bottles that would need to be sampled to ensure that the
probability of getting at least one bottle filled by Machine A containing more than 1000
ml of mineral water is greater than 0.99.
(4)

(d)

It has been found that for Machine B the probability of a bottle containing less than 996
ml of mineral water is 0.1151. The probability of a bottle containing more than 1000 ml is
0.3446. Find the mean and standard deviation for the volume of mineral water contained
in bottles filled by Machine B.
(6)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

(e)

The company that makes the mineral water receives, on average, m phone calls every 10
minutes. The number of phone calls, X, follows a Poisson distribution such that
P(X = 2) = P(X = 3) + P(X = 4).
(i)

Find the value of m.

(ii)

Find the probability that the company receives more than two telephone calls in a
randomly selected 10 minute period.
(6)
(Total 20 marks)

13.

The random variable X has a Poisson distribution. Given that P(X > 2) = 0.6, find
(a)

the mean of the distribution;

(4)

(b)

the mode of the distribution.

(2)
(Total 6 marks)

14.

In each round of two different games Ying tosses three fair coins and Mario tosses two fair
coins.
(a)

The first game consists of one round. If Ying obtains more heads than Mario, she receives
$5 from Mario. If Mario obtains more heads than Ying, he receives $10 from Ying. If
they obtain the same number of heads, then Mario receives $2 from Ying. Determine
Yings expected winnings.
(12)

(b)

They now play the second game, where the winner will be the player who obtains the
larger number of heads in a round. If they obtain the same number of heads, they play
another round until there is a winner. Calculate the probability that Ying wins the game.
(8)
(Total 20 marks)

15.

The probability distribution of a discrete random variable X is defined by

P(X = x) = cx(5 x), x = 1, 2, 3, 4.

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

(a)

Find the value of c.

(3)

(b)

Find E(X).
(3)
(Total 6 marks)

16.

The lifts in the office buildings of a small city have occasional breakdowns. The breakdowns at
any given time are independent of one another and can be modelled using a Poisson Distribution
with mean 0.2 per day.
(a)

Determine the probability that there will be exactly four breakdowns during the month of
June (June has 30 days).
(3)

(b)

Determine the probability that there are more than three breakdowns during the month of
June.
(2)

(c)

Determine the probability that there are no breakdowns during the first five days of June.
(2)

(d)

Find the probability that the first breakdown in June occurs on June 3 rd.
(3)

(e)

It costs 1850 euros to service the lifts when they have breakdowns. Find the expected cost
of servicing lifts for the month of June.
(1)

(f)

Determine the probability that there will be no breakdowns in exactly 4 out of the first 5
days in June.
(2)
(Total 13 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

17.

Over a one month period, Ava and Sven play a total of n games of tennis.
The probability that Ava wins any game is 0.4. The result of each game played is independent
of any other game played.
Let X denote the number of games won by Ava over a one month period.

(a)

Find an expression for P(X = 2) in terms of n.

(3)

(b)

If the probability that Ava wins two games is 0.121 correct to three decimal places, find
the value of n.
(3)
(Total 6 marks)

18.

The distance travelled by students to attend Gauss College is modelled by a normal distribution
with mean 6 km and standard deviation 1.5 km.
(a)

(i)

Find the probability that the distance travelled to Gauss College by a randomly
selected student is between 4.8 km and 7.5 km.

(ii)

15 of students travel less than d km to attend Gauss College. Find the value of d.
(7)

At Euler College, the distance travelled by students to attend their school is modelled by a
normal distribution with mean km and standard deviation km.
(b)

If 10 of students travel more than 8 km and 5 of students travel less than 2 km, find
the value of and of .
(6)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

The number of telephone calls, T, received by Euler College each minute can be modelled by a
Poisson distribution with a mean of 3.5.
(c)

(i)

Find the probability that at least three telephone calls are received by Euler College
in each of two successive one-minute intervals.

(ii)

Find the probability that Euler College receives 15 telephone calls during a
randomly selected five-minute interval.
(8)
(Total 21 marks)

19.

Anna has a fair cubical die with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 respectively on the six faces. When
she tosses it, the score is defined as the number on the uppermost face. One day, she decides to
toss the die repeatedly until all the possible scores have occurred at least once.
(a)

Having thrown the die once, she lets X2 denote the number of additional throws required
to obtain a different number from the one obtained on the first throw. State the
distribution of X2 and hence find E(X2).
(3)

(b)

She then lets X3 denote the number of additional throws required to obtain a different
number from the two numbers already obtained. State the distribution of X3 and hence
find E(X3).
(2)

(c)

By continuing the process, show that the expected number of tosses needed to obtain all
six possible scores is 14.7.
(5)
(Total 10 marks)

20.

A factory makes wine glasses. The manager claims that on average 2 of the glasses are
imperfect. A random sample of 200 glasses is taken and 8 of these are found to be imperfect.
Test the managers claim at a 1 level of significance using a one-tailed test.
(Total 7 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

10

(3)

(b)

She then lets X3 denote the number of additional throws required to obtain a different
number from the two numbers already obtained. State the distribution of X3 and hence
find E(X3).
(2)

(c)

By continuing the process, show that the expected number of tosses needed to obtain all
six possible scores is 14.7.
(5)
(Total 10 marks)

21.

The number of telephone calls received by a helpline over 80 one-minute periods are
summarized in the table below.

(a)

Number of calls

Frequency

12

22

10

11

Find the exact value of the mean of this distribution.

(2)

(b)

Test, at the 5 level of significance, whether or not the data can be modelled by a
Poisson distribution.
(12)
(Total 14 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

11

22.

(a)

The independent random variables X and Y have Poisson distributions and Z = X + Y. The
means of X and Y are and respectively. By using the identity
P Z n

P X k P Y n k
k 0

show that Z has a Poisson distribution with mean ( + ).

(6)

(b)

Given that U1, U2, U3, are independent Poisson random variables each having mean m,
n

use mathematical induction together with the result in (a) to show that

has a

r 1

Poisson distribution with mean nm.

(6)
(Total 12 marks)

23.

John removes the labels from three cans of tomato soup and two cans of chicken soup in order
to enter a competition, and puts the cans away. He then discovers that the cans are identical, so
that he cannot distinguish between cans of tomato soup and chicken soup. Some weeks later he
decides to have a can of chicken soup for lunch. He opens the cans at random until he opens a
can of chicken soup. Let Y denote the number of cans he opens.
Find
(a)

the possible values of Y,

(1)

(b)

the probability of each of these values of Y,

(4)

(c)

the expected value of Y.

(2)
(Total 7 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

12

24.

A continuous random variable X has a probability density function given by

( x 1) 3
, for 1 x 3,

f(x) = 60

otherwise.
0,

Find
(a)

P(1.5 X 2.5);
(2)

(b)

E(X);
(2)

(c)

the median of X.
(3)
(Total 7 marks)

25.

(a)

Ahmed is typing Section A of a mathematics examination paper. The number of mistakes

that he makes, X, can be modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean 3.2. Find the
probability that Ahmed makes exactly four mistakes.
(1)

(b)

His colleague, Levi, is typing Section B of this paper. The number of mistakes that he
makes, Y, can be modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean m.
(i)

If E(Y2) = 5.5, find the value of m.

(ii)

Find the probability that Levi makes exactly three mistakes.

(5)

(c)

Given that X and Y are independent, find the probability that Ahmed makes exactly four
mistakes and Levi makes exactly three mistakes.
(2)
(Total 8 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

13

26.

(a)

A box of biscuits is considered to be underweight if it weighs less than 228 grams. It is

known that the weights of these boxes of biscuits are normally distributed with a mean of
231 grams and a standard deviation of 1.5 grams. What is the probability that a box is
underweight?
(2)

(b)

The manufacturer decides that the probability of a box being underweight should be
reduced to 0.002.
(i)

Bills suggestion is to increase the mean and leave the standard deviation
unchanged. Find the value of the new mean.

(ii)

Sarahs suggestion is to reduce the standard deviation and leave the mean
unchanged. Find the value of the new standard deviation.
(6)

(c)

After the probability of a box being underweight has been reduced to 0.002, a group of
customers buys 100 boxes of biscuits. Find the probability that at least two of the boxes
are underweight.
(3)
(Total 11 marks)

27.

Flowering plants are randomly distributed around a field according to a Poisson distribution
with mean . Students find that they are twice as likely to find exactly ten flowering plants as to
find exactly nine flowering plants in a square metre of field. Calculate the expected number of
flowering plants in a square metre of field.
(Total 5 marks)

(i)

Bills suggestion is to increase the mean and leave the standard deviation
unchanged. Find the value of the new mean.

(ii)

Sarahs suggestion is to reduce the standard deviation and leave the mean
unchanged. Find the value of the new standard deviation.
(6)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

14

(c)

After the probability of a box being underweight has been reduced to 0.002, a group of
customers buys 100 boxes of biscuits. Find the probability that at least two of the boxes
are underweight.
(3)
(Total 11 marks)

28.

There are 30 students in a class, of which 18 are girls and 12 are boys. Four students are
selected at random to form a committee. Calculate the probability that the committee contains
(a)

two girls and two boys;

(3)

(b)

students all of the same gender.

(3)
(Total 6 marks)

29.

The random variable X has a Poisson distribution with mean 4. Calculate

(a)

P(3 X 5);
(2)

(b)

P(X 3);
(2)

(c)

P(3 X 5|X 3).

(2)
(Total 6 marks)

IB Questionbank Mathematics Higher Level 3rd edition

15