SECTION A ( Answer 3 out of 5)

Question 1
a) The simply supported beam AB carries a uniformly distributed load w per unit
length, as shown in the figure 1(a). For w = 2.0 kN/m and L= 3.0 m, determine
the equation of the deflection and the slope of the beam.
w
A

Fig. 1(a)

[13 marks]

b) You are designing a spherical tank shown in the figure 1(b) to hold water for a
small village in a developing country. The volume of liquid it can hold can be
computed as:
3 Rh
V = h2
3

Where V = volume
radius [m].

[ m3 ]

, h = depth of water in tank [m], and R = the tank

Fig. 1(b)

If R = 3 m, to what depth must the tank be filled so that it holds 30 m3 ? Use three
iterations of the Newton-Raphson method to determine your answer in 8 significant
figures.
[12 marks]

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Question 2
a) Measurements of the tension of three support cables produced the following
equations:
5 T 1T 2 +2T 3=3
2T 1 +4 T 2 +T 3 =8
T 1 +3 T 23 T 3 =2 .
F

ind T 1

, T2

and

T3

[Note: Use either Gaussian Elimination (including backward substitution part) or

Gauss-Seidel Method with 3 iterations].
[12 marks]
b) The following data defines the sea-level concentration of dissolved oxygen for
fresh water as a function of temperature:
TC
o , mg/L

0
14.621

8
11.843

16
9.870

24
8.418

32
7.305

40
6.413

Using Newtons General Interpolation formula, estimate o(27).

[13 marks]
Question 3
a) Solve the homogeneous differential equation:
dy x 2 + xy+ y 2
.
=
2
dx
x
[8 marks]
b) Determine the general solution to the following Bernoullis equation:
dy
x 3 x 2 y=y 4 Sinx .
dx
[10 Marks]
c) Solve the Euler differential equation:
d2 y
dy
2 x 2 2 x 2 y=0 .
dx
dx
[7
Marks]
Question 4
Consider a piece of thin flexible string of length 5 m, of negligible weight. Suppose
the two ends of the string are firmly clamped so they will not move. Solve the
resulted one-dimensional wave problem:
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9 u xx =utt
0< x <5, t >0
u(0, t)=0 ,
u(5, t )=0 ,
u ( x , 0 )=4 sin ( x )sin ( 2 x )3 sin ( 5 x ) ,
ut ( x ,0 )=0 .
Question 5

and
[25 marks]

a) Determine the moment of inertia of the shaded area shown with respect to each
of the coordinate axes.

[12 Marks]
b) Determine the moments of inertia and the radius of gyration of the shaded area
with respect to the x and y axes.

[13 Marks]

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SECTION B ( Answer 1 out of 3)

Question 1
Suppose the following pollution levels (parts per million) are observed in a river:
2.2
1.8
2.7
3.3
3.0

3.4
2.8
3.6
2.3
2.9

3.0
3.2
1.9
1.7
3.4

2.6
3.7
2.2
2.6
3.1

3.8
1.2
3.0
3.5
2.4

i) Produce a frequency distribution table having about 6 classes;

ii) Present the grouped data as the histogram and find the mode;
iii) On the same pair of axes, present the grouped data as the cumulative
frequency curve too; and
iv) Draw the box plot of the data and state how the data is skewed.
[8+5+7+5 Marks]

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Question 2
a) Three road construction firms, X, Y and Z, bid for a certain contract. From past
experience, it is estimated that the probability that X will be awarded the contract
is 0.40, while for Y and Z, the probabilities are 0.35 and 0.25. If X does receive
the contract, the probability that the work will be satisfactorily completed on time
is 0.75. For Y and Z the probabilities are 0.80 and 0.70.
i)
What is the probability that Y will be awarded the contract and complete
the work satisfactorily?;
ii)
What is the probability that the work will be completely satisfactorily?; and
iii)
It turns out that the work was done satisfactorily. What is the probability
that Y was awarded the contract?.
[8.5+1+2.5 Marks]
b) Potholes on a highway can be a serious problem, and are in constant need of
repair. With a particular type of terrain and make of concrete, past experience
suggests that there are, on the average, 3 potholes per kilometre after a certain
amount of usage. It is assumed that the Poisson process applies to the random
variable number of potholes.
What is the probability that no more than 3 potholes will occur in a given section
of 5 kilometres? Give your answers in 5 significant figures.
[6 Marks]

c) A safety engineer claims that only 30% of all workers wear safety helmets when
they eat lunch at the workplace. Assuming that this claim is right, find the
probability that at least 2 workers randomly chosen will be wearing their helmets
while having lunch at the workplace.
[7 Marks]

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Question 3
a) The tensile strength of a certain metal component is normally distributed with a
mean of 9,868 kilograms per square centimeter and a standard deviation of 96.4
kilograms per square centimeter.
If specifications require that all components have tensile strength between 9,500
and 10,200 kilograms per square metre inclusive, what proportion of pieces
would you expect to scrap?
[5 Marks]
b) The following measurements were recorded for the drying time, in hours, of 15
samples of a certain brand of latex paint:
3.4
2.8
4.4

2.5
3.3
4.0

4.8
5.6
5.2

2.9
3.7
3.0

3.6
2.8
4.8

Assuming that the measurements represent a random sample from a normal

population, construct a 95% confidence interval on the mean drying time.
[10 Marks]
c)

In a laboratory, 30 measurements are taken to control the water quality every

day. Each measurement is assumed to follow a Normal distribution with a mean
of 23 ng / ml .
The laboratory now bought a new instrument for measurement and decided to
carry out a number of measurements in order to calibrate the new instrument
with the old instrument. 15 measurements were carried out and the result was
summarized as: the sample mean is x =19 ng/ml and the sample standard
deviation s=5 ng /ml . Test at the 10% significance level if the measurement
result from the new measurement belongs to the same population of the
measurement results from the old instrument.
[10 Marks]

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