BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

K. K. BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

Second Semester 2018-2019
Tutorial-4
Course No. MATH F113 Course title: Probability and Statisitcs

(1) A manufacturer of cotter pins knows that 5% of his product is de-

fective. If he sells cotter pins in boxes of 100 and guarantees that
not more than 10 pins will be defected, what is the approximate
probability that a box will fail to meet the guaranteed quality?
(2) For what value of the constant c, the real valued function f : R → R
given by
c
f (x) = 1+(x−θ)2
, −∞ < x < ∞
where θ is a real parameter, is a probability density function for
random variable X?
(3) A couple decides to have 3 children. If none of the 3 is a girl, they
will try again; and if they still don’t get a girl, they will try once
more. If the random variable X denotes the number of children the
couple will have following this scheme, then what is the expected
value of X?
(4) A lot of 8 TV sets includes 3 that are defective. If 4 of the sets are
chosen at random for shipment to a hotel, how many defective sets
can they expect?
(5) Let X have the density function
(
2x
2, for 0 ≤ x ≤ k
f (x) = k
0, otherwise.
For what value of k is the variance of X equal to 2?
(6) Let X have the probability density function
1 8 x
(

9 9 , for x = 0, 1, 2, . . .
f (x) =
0, otherwise.
What is the moment generating function of the random variable X?
(7) A gambler plays roulette at Monte Carlo and continues gambling,
wagering the same amount each time on ”Red”, until he wins for
18
the first time. If the probability of ”Red” is 38 and the gambler has
only enough money for 5 trials, then
(a) what is the probability that he will win before he exhausts his
funds;
(b) what is the probability that he wins on the second trial?
(8) The number of traffic accidents per week in a small city has a Poisson
distribution with mean equal to 3. What is the probability of exactly
2 accidents occur in 2 weeks?
(9) Let X have a Poisson distribution with parameter λ = 1. What is
the probability that X ≥ 2 given that X ≤ 4?
(10) If the moment generating function of a random variable X is M (t) =
t
e4.6(e −1) , then what are the mean and variance of X? What is the
probability that X is between 3 and 6, that is P (3 < X < 6)?
(11) Ten is the average number of oil tankers arriving each day at a certain
port city. The facilities at the port can handle at most 15 tankers
1
2

per day. What is the probability that on a given day tankers have
to be turned away?
(12) In a certain industrial facility accidents occur in frequently. It is
known that the probability of an accident on any given day is 0.005
and accidents are independent of each other.
(a) What, is the probability that in any given period of 400 days
there will be an accident on one day?
(b) What is the probability that there are at most three days with
an accident?
(13) In a manufacturing process where glass products are produced, de-
fects or bubbles occur, occasionally rendering the piece undesirable:
for marketing. It is known that, on average, 1 in every 1000 of these
items produced has one or more bubbles. What is the probability
that a random sample of 8000 will yield fewer than 7 items possessing
bubbles?
(14) If X and Y are independent Poisson random variables with parame-
ter k1 , k2 respectively, show that the conditional distribution of X,
given the value of X + Y , is a binomial distribution.
(15) A loom experience one yarn breakage approximately every 10 hours.
A particular style of cloth is being produced that will take 25 hours
on this loom. If 3 or more breaks are required to render the product
unsatisfactory, find the probability that the style of cloth is finished
with acceptable quality.
(16) A communication system consists of n components, each of which
will, independently, function with probability p. The total system
will be able to operate effectively if at least one half of its components
function. For what values of p is a 5 component system more likely
to operate than a 3 component system ?
(17) Suppose that the number of telephone calls coming into a telephone
exchange between 10 A.M. to 11 A.M., say, X1 , is a random variable
with Poisson distribution with parameter 2. Similarly, the number
of calls arriving between 11 A.M. and 12 noon, say, X2 , has a Poisson
distribution with parameter 6. If X1 and X2 are independent, what
is the probability that more than 5 calls come in between 10 A.M.
to 12 noon ?
(18) A company rents out time on a computer for periods of t hours,
for which it receives Rs. 600/- an hour. The number of times the
computer breaks down during t hours is a r.v. having the Poisson
distribution with λ = 0.8t and if the computer breaks down x times
during t hours it costs Rs. 50x2 to fix it. How should the company
select t in order to maximize its expected profit.
(19) The number of times that an individual contracts a cold in a given
year is a Poisson process with parameter λ = 3 per year. Suppose a
new drug just has been marketed that reduces the Poisson parameter
to λ = 2 per year for 75 percent of the population. For other 25
 3

percent of the population, the drug has no appreciable effect on

colds. If an individual tries the drug for a year and has 0 colds in
that time, how likely is it that the drug is beneficial for him/her ?
(20) Assume that cars pass under a bridge at a rate of 100 per hour
according to a Poisson process. (i) Find the time interval such that
the probability that no car will pass during this interval is at least
0.25. (ii) Find the probability that during a 3 minute period no cars
will pass under the bridge ?
(21) If electricity power failures occur according to a Poisson distribu-
tion with an average of 3 failures every twenty weeks, calculate the
probability that there will not be more than one failure during a
particular week.
(22) The number of calls coming per minute into a hotels reservation cen-
ter is Poisson random variable with mean 3. (a) Find the probability
that no calls come in a given 1 minute period. (b) Assume that the
number of calls arriving in two different minutes are independent.
Find the probability that at least two calls will arrive in a given two
minute period.