Module 6 Continuous Distributions: Practice Problems

1. The price of Stock XYZ is uniformly distributed between $40 and $60 per share.
Based on this information, determine the following:
a. What is the expected price of one share of Stock XYZ?
b. What is the probability that the price of the stock is between $32 and $51?
c. What is the probability that the price of the stock will fall below $30?
d. What is the probability that the price of the stock will exceed $55?
e. What is the standard deviation of the stock price?

2. The weight of pallets of sod is uniformly distributed with a standard deviation equal
to 30.31 pounds. If the maximum weight of these pallets is 150 pounds, what is the
minimum weight?

3. The length of time it takes to fly from City A to City B assumes a uniform distribution
over the interval of 90 minutes to 1 hour. Based on this information, determine the
following:
a. The average time a passenger would expect the trip to take.
b. The standard deviation of the distribution of time from City A to City B.
c. What is the probability that a flight will last between 80 and 100 minutes?
d. What is the probability that the flight will last longer than one and one-half
hours?
e. What is the probability that the flight will last no more than 75 minutes?
f. What is the probability that a flight will take at least 83 minutes?

4. Suppose that the time it takes to process a tuition refund is found to be normally
distributed with a mean of 30 days and a standard deviation of 8 days. What is the
probability that a randomly selected refund will take at least 10 days to process?

5. The times required for a cable company to fix cable problems in its customers'
homes are uniformly distributed between 40 minutes and 65 minutes.
What is the probability that a randomly selected cable repair visit falls within 2
standard deviations of the mean?

6. Z is a standard normal variable. Find the value of Z in the following:

a. The area between 0 and Z is 0.4678.
b. The area to the right of Z is 0.1112.
c. The area to the left of Z is 0.8554
d. The area between -Z and Z is 0.754.
e. The area to the left of -Z is 0.0681.
f. The area to the right of -Z is 0.9803.

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 Module 6 Continuous Distributions: Practice Problems

7. The average life expectancy of vinyl pool covers manufactured by Pool Sharks is 6 years with a
standard deviation of 10 months. Assume that the lives of the pool covers are normally distributed.

a. What is the probability that a randomly selected pool cover will have a life
expectancy of at least 7 years?
b. Pool covers that fail in less than 51/2 years will be replaced free of charge. What
percentage of computers are expected to be replaced free of charge?
c. What are the minimum and the maximum life expectancy of the middle 95% of the
pool covers’ lives
d. The company is expecting that only 104 of this year’s production will fail in less than
3 years and 8 months. How many pool covers were produced this year?

8. The weight of a product is normally distributed with a mean 5 ounces. A randomly

selected unit of this product weighs 7.1 ounces. The probability of a unit weighing
more than 7.1 ounces is .0014. The production supervisor has lost files containing
various pieces of information regarding this process including the standard
deviation. Determine the value of standard deviation for this process.

9. The average time a subscriber spends reading the local newspaper is 49 minutes.
Assume the standard deviation is 16 minutes and that the times are normally
distributed. For the 10% who spend the most time reading the paper, how much
time do they spend?

10. X is a normally distributed random variable with a mean of 4.0. Find the standard
deviation of the distribution if 59.10% of the data lies to the right of 3.20. (Note: the
diagram is not necessarily to scale.)

11. A recent study found that the life expectancy of a people living in Africa is normally
distributed with an average of 53 years with a standard deviation of 7.5 years. If a
person in Africa is selected at random, what is the probability that the person will
die before the age of 65?

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 Module 6 Continuous Distributions: Practice Problems

12. On average, consumers finance their cars for 40 months with a standard deviation of
8 months. If the length of these auto loans is normally distributed, how many car
loans out of one million will be paid off before 36 months?

13. A standardized aptitude test has a mean score of 80 with a standard deviation of 5.
The population of aptitude test scores is normally distributed. What raw score
corresponds to the 70th percentile?

14. Suppose the daily change in price of a stock is normally distributed with mean = .20
and standard deviation = .30. What price change is associated with the 25th
percentile?

15. A cheetah is one of the fastest animals in the wild. If the speed a cheetah can run is
normally distributed and 32 mph has a z-score of 1.2, and 24 mph has a z-score of -
.4, what is the mean mph of the distribution of speeds?

16. The length of time that takes to process an invoice is normally distributed with a
standard deviation of .5 minutes. What should the average time be if the operations
manager wants no more than 5% of the invoices to take more than 5.1 minutes to
process?

17. Suppose that the waiting time for a license plate renewal at a local office of a state
motor vehicle department has been found to be normally distributed with a mean of
30 minutes and a standard deviation of 8 minutes. Complete the following
statement: Only 20% of the individuals wait less than _____ minutes.

18. The average weight of luggage being carried onto airplanes is 30 pounds, and the
weight of the luggage assumes a bell shaped distribution. If the variance of the
luggage weight is 0.0225 pounds, only 2.28% of the carry-on bags will exceed what
weight?

19. A market researcher collects data regarding the amount that consumers spend on
items located near the cash register at convenience stores. After analysis of the data,
they discover that only 8.38% of the customers spent less than $5.88 while 2.912%
of the consumers spent in excess of $6.75. If the data can be assumed to follow a
normal distribution, what is the value of the standard deviation and mean of the
distribution of consumer expenditures?

20. In the market research above how many of the 10,000 consumers included in the
survey spent $.025 more than they spent the average consumer?
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21. Homer Simpson really does not care if he gets to work on time or not. It takes him
an average of 35 minutes with a standard deviation of 7 minutes to get to work. At
what time should Homer leave his house so that he has a 35% chance of arriving at
work by 8am?

22. The average price of a sword made by Elves from Rivendell is $110 with a standard
deviation of $24. Furthermore, it is known that the prices of swords manufactured
by the Elves are normally distributed.
a. What percentage of swords made by Elves from Rivendell will have a price of at
least $145.00?
b. Swords that sell for more than $85 come with a free spool of “Real Elfish Rope.”
What percentage of the swords will qualify the buyer to receive this free gift?
c. If 600 of the swords made by Elves from Rivendell were at least $120.00, how
many swords were made by Elves from Rivendell?

23. The weight of cave trolls living in the Mines of Moria is normally distributed with a
mean of 395 pounds. If only 1.1 percent of the cave trolls weigh more than 429
pounds, what is the value of the standard deviation of the weight of cave trolls living
in the Mines of Moria?

24. The SAT scores of students are normally distributed with a mean of 950 and a
standard deviation of 200.
a. Nancy Bright’s SAT score was 1390. What percentage of students have scores
higher than Nancy Bright?
b. There were 165 students who scored above 1432. How many students took the
SAT?

25. A manufacturer of personal computers tests competing brands and finds that the
amounts of energy they require are normally distributed with a mean of 285 kWh
and a standard deviation of 9.1 kWh. If the lowest 20% and the highest 35% are not
included in a second round of tests, what are the upper and lower limits for the
energy amounts of the remaining sets?

26. The monthly earnings of computer systems analysts are normally distributed with a
mean of $4,300. If only 1.07 percent of the systems analysts have a monthly income
of more than $6,140, what is the value of the standard deviation of the monthly
earnings of the computer systems analysts?

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