Tutorial on Binomial Distribution and Poisson Distribution

Problem / Question 1: (5 Marks)

A traffic control engineer reports that 75% of the vehicles passing through a checkpoint are from
within the state. What is the probability that fewer than 4 of the next 9 vehicles are from out of
test?
Problem / Question 2: (5 Marks)

According to a study published by a group of University of Massachusetts sociologists,

approximately 60% of the Valium users in the state of Massachusetts first took Valium for
psychological problems. Find the probability that among the next 8 users interviewed from this
state,
(a) None took Valium first for psychological problems
(b) exactly 3 began taking Valium for psychological problems;
Problem / Question 3: (5 Marks)

In a certain city district the need for money to buy drugs is stated as the reason for 75% of all
thefts. What is the probability that among the next 5 theft cases reported in this district?
a) None resulted from the need for money to buy drugs
b) At least one resulted from the need to buy drugs
a) Exactly 2 resulted from the need for money to buy drugs
b) At most 3 resulted from the need for money to buy drugs

Additional Problems/Questions for Advanced Learners: (each carries 5 Marks)

It is known that 60% of mice inoculated with a serum are protected from a certain disease. If 5
mice are inoculated, what is the probability that
(a) none contracts the disease;
(b) fewer than 2 contract the disease;
(c) more than 3 contract the disease.
 Tutorial on Poisson distribution

Problem / Question 1: (5 Marks)

Suppose that, on average, 1 person in 1000 makes a numerical error in preparing his or her
income Tax return. If 10000 forms are selected at random and examined, find the probability
that 6, 7 or 8 of the forms contain an error. Also find mean and Variance.
Problem / Question 2: (5 Marks)

On an Average a certain intersection results in 3 Traffic accidents per month. What is the
probability that for any given month at this intersection
a) Exactly 5 accidents will occur?
b) Less than 3 accidents will occur?
c) at least 2 accidents will occur?
Problem / Question 3: (5 Marks)
The probability that a person will die from certain respiratory infection is 0.002.Find the
probability that fewer than 5 of the next 2000 so infected will die. Also find mean and Variance.
Additional Problems/Questions for Advanced Learners: (each carries 5 Marks)

1. 10 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 per day. What is the probability that
a) on a given day Tankers have to be turned away
b) on a given day all the tankers are allowed

Normal distribution:
1. Given the normally distributed variable X with mean 18 and standard deviation 2.5, find
a) P(X<15);
b) the value of k such that P(X<k)=0.2236;
c) the value of k such that P(X>k)=0.1814;
d) P(17<X<21).
2. Given random variable X having a normal distribution with μ=50 and σ =10, find the
probability that X assumes a value
(a) between 45 and 62 (b) less than 20 (c) more than 40
3. Gauges are used to reject all components where a certain dimensions are not within the
specification 1.50±d. It is known that this measurement is normally distributed with mean 1.50
and standard deviation 0.2.Determine the value d such that the specifications “cover” 95% of the
measurements.
4.In an industrial process the diameter of a ball bearing is an important component part. The
buyer sets specifications on the diameter to be 3.0±0.01 cm. The implication is that no part
falling outside these specifications will be accepted. It is known that in the process the diameter
of a ball bearing has a normal distribution with mean μ=3.0 and standard deviation σ =0.005. On
the average, what % of manufactured ball bearings will be scraped?
5.A certain machine makes electrical resistors having a mean resistance of 40 Ohms and standard
deviation of 2 Ohms. Assuming that the resistance follows a normal distribution and can be
measured to any degree of accuracy, what percentage of resistors will have resistance exceeding
43 Ohms?
6. The Heights of 1000 students are normally distributed with a mean of 174.5cm and a standard
deviation of 6.9 cm. assuming that the heights are recorded to the nearest half-cm, how many
of these students would you expect to have heights
a)less than 160.0 cms?
b) between 171.5 and 182.0 cms inclusive?
c) equal to 175.0cm?
d) grater than or equal to 188.0cms.

Tutorial
Exponential distribution:
1. The life, in years, of a certain type of electrical switch has an exponential distribution
with an average life β=2. If 100 of these switches are installed in different systems, what
is the probability that at most 30 fail during the first year?
2. The life, in years, of a certain type of electrical switch has an exponential distribution
with an average life β=2. If 100 of these switches are installed in different systems, what
is the probability that at most 30 fail during the first year?
3. The length of time between breakdowns of an essential piece of equipment is important in the
decision of the use of auxiliary equipment. An engineer thinks that the best “model” for time
between breakdowns of a generator is the exponential distribution with a mean of 15 days.
a) If the generator has just broken down, what is the probability that it will break down in the
next 21 days?
b) What is the probability that the generator will operate for 30 days without a breakdown?

Tutorial problems:
Correlation coefficient for ungrouped data:

1. A chemical company, wishing to study the effect of extraction time on the efficiency of an
extraction operation, obtained the data shown in the following table. Calculate r

Extraction time X Extraction efficiency (%) y

27 57

45 64

41 80

19 46

35 62

39 72

19 52

49 77
2. The following table gives
15 57
the data on corn yield
x and peanut 31 68 yield (y)
(mt/ha) for eight
different types of soil
X: 2.4 3.4 4.6 3.7 2.2 3.3 4.0 2.1
 Y: 1.33 2.12 1.80 1.65 2.00 1.76 2.11 1.63
Find the correlation between corn yields x a peanut yield and interpret the value.
3. The following table gives the concentrations of two different pollutants ozone concentration x
(ppm) and secondary carbon concentration y (ug/m3). Find the correlation coefficient between
ozone concentration and secondary carbon concentration and interpret the values
X: 0.666 0.088 0.120 0.050 0.162 0.186 0.057 0.100
Y: 4.6 11.6 9.5 6.3 13.8 15.4 2.5 11.8

4. The following data represent the chemistry grades for a random sample of 12 freshmen at a
certain college along with their scores on an intelligence test administered while they were still
senior in high school:
Student: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Test score x: 65 50 55 65 55 70 65 70 55 70 50 55
Chemistry y: 85 74 76 90 85 87 94 98 81 91 76 74
Compute and interpret the sample correlation coefficient.
5. Heavy metals can inhibit the biological treatment of waste in municipal treatment plants.
Monthly measurements were made at a state of the art treatment plant of the amount of
chromium 9ug/l) in both the influent and effluent.
Influent: 250 290 270 100 300 410 110 130 1100
Effluent: 19 10 17 11 70 60 18 30 180
a) Make a scatter plot
b) Make a scatter plot after taking the natural logarithm of both variables
c) Calculate the correlation coefficient, r, in part (a) and Part (b)
6. The following are measurements of the air velocity and evaporation coefficient of burning
fuel droplets in an impulse engine:
Air velocity 20 60 100 140 180 220 260 300 340 380
(cm/s) x
Evaporation 0.18 0.37 0.35 0.78 0.56 0.75 1.18 1.36 1.17 1.65
coefficient
(mm2/s) y
Calculate r for the air velocity and evaporation.
Tutorial Problems
Fitting of Exponential and Power curves:
1. An experiment was conducted on a new model of a particular make of an automobile to
determine the stopping distance at various speeds. The following data were recorded.
Speed, v(km/hr): 35 50 65 80 95 110
Stopping distance: 16 26 41 62 88 119
Determine the coefficient of regression and regression curve y=a e bx .
2. An experiment was conducted in order to determine if cerebral blood flow in human beings
can be predicted from arterial oxygen tension (millimetres of mercury0. Fifteen patients were
used in the study and the following data were observed:
Blood flow y: 87.80 82.20 78.21 78.4 80.01 83.53 79.46 75.22
76.58 77.90 78.80 80.67 86.80
Arterial O T x: 582.50 556.20 594.60 558.90 575.20 580.10 451.20 404.00
484.00 452.40 448.40 334.80 320.30

Determine the coefficient of regression and regression curve y=a e bx .

3. The following table shows the data about the thickness (um) of Nidral coatings deposited on
stainless steel substrate and corresponding bond strength (MPa). The following data was read
from a plot in teh paper.
Thickness : 220 220 370 370 400 440 680 680 860 860
Strength: 24.0 19.1 26.3 23.1 25.2 21.7 17.0 14.9 12.2 6.6
To fit a power carve y=a b x .