Faculty of Applied Sciences
Department of Applied Mathematics
SMA2217: Engineering Mathematics II
(Probability & Statistics)
Tutorial Worksheet
Instruction: Attempt these problems before your tutorial class
1. Consider the following examples of populations, together with the
variable/characteristic measured on each population unit.
(a) All undergraduate students currently enrolled at NUST. Variable:
degree program.
(b) All campus restaurants. Variable: seating capacity.
(c) All books in NUST library. Variable: frequency of check-out.
(d) All steel cylinders manufactured in a given month. Variable: diameter
of cylinder.
For each of the above examples:
(1) Describe the statistical population.
(2) Is the variable of interest is quantitative or qualitative.
(3) Specify another variable that could be measured on the population
units.
2. The daily emissions of sulphur dioxide from an industrial plant in
tonnes/day were as follows:
4.2 6.7 5.4 5.7 4.9 4.6 5.8 5.2 4.1 6.2
5.5 4.9 5.1 5.6 5.9 6.8 5.8 4.8 5.3 5.7
a) Prepare a stem-and leaf display for these data.
b) Prepare a box plot for these data.
3. A random sample was taken of the thickness of insulation in
transformer windings and the following thicknesses (in millimetres)
were recorded:
18 21 22 29 25 31 37 38 41 39
44 48 54 56 56 57 47 38 35 36
29 37 32 42 43 40 48 36 37 37
36 38 40 41 44 39 38 34 24 32
39 44 42 30 37 30 42 37 34 37
32 24 42 36 49 39 23 34 36 40
a) Make a stem-and-leaf display for these data. Show at least five stems.
1
b) Estimate from these data the percentage of all the windings that
received more than 30 mm of insulation but less than 50 mm.
c) Find the 5 number summary of these data.
d) Make a frequency table for the data.
e) Draw a frequency histogram.
f) Find the mode.
g) Draw a box plot of these data.
4. Consider grouped data on weight in kg recorded to the nearest Kg of
35 patients at a certain local hospital:
Class Interval Frequency
94-104 2
104-114 5
114-124 11
124-134 10
134-144 3
144-154 4
Using the grouped data find mean, mode, median, variance and standard
deviation.
5. A mining company finds a body of ore and obtains 24 core samples by
drilling at equally spaced intervals along the body. The samples are
analysed for percentage content of a valuable mineral and the results
appear below.
17 18 26 18 31 31 19 17 22 13 19 17 16
14 13 10 16 14 13 23 16 20 18 30
(a) Form a grouped frequency distribution using a 5 percentage interval.
(b) Draw a histogram and comment on the distribution.
6. Consider the following data set consisting of 12 observations:
0.7 1.1 0.7 0.9 6.5 1.6 4.0 2.9 0.2 5.1 9.2 11.9
Draw a stem-and-leaf plot for the data. Comment on the distribution
7. Consider the data set:
98 100 100 103 105 107 110 113 115
Find the five-number summary. What are the IQR and range of this data
set?
8. Consider the following data set of 13 observations:
2
4 6 6 7 7 9 10 11 13 15 22 24
30
Find the median, lower quartile, upper quartile and IQR. Hence identify
any outliers.
9. Consider the two samples:
Sample 1: 1.76, 1.45, 1.03, 1.53, 2.34, 1.96, 1.79, 1.21
Sample 2: 0.49, 0.85, 1.00, 1.54, 1.01, 0.75, 2.11, 0.92
For each of the two samples, calculate the mean and the standard
deviation and draw a box plot.
10. A pilot plant has produced metallurgical batches which are
summarized
as follows:
Low strength High strength
Low in impurities 2 27
High in impurities 12 4
If these results are representative of full-scale production, find estimated
probabilities that a production batch will be:
a) Low in impurities
b) High strength
c) Both high in impurities and high strength
d) Both high in impurities and low strength
11. Past records show that 4 of 135 parts are defective in length, 3 of
141 are defective in width, and 2 of 347 are defective in both. Use these
figures to estimate probabilities of the individual events assuming that
defects occur independently in length and width.
a) What is the probability that a part produced under the same conditions
will be defective in length or width or both?
b) What is the probability that a part will have neither defect?
12. A company produces machine components which pass through an
automatic testing machine. 5% of the components entering the testing
machines are defective. However, the machine is not entirely reliable. If
a component is defective there is 4% probability that it will not be
rejected. If a component is not defective there is 7% probability that it
will be rejected.
a) What fraction of all the components are rejected?
b) What fraction of the components rejected are actually not
defective?
c) What fraction of those not rejected are defective?
3
13. Three different machines Ml, M2, and M3 are used to produce similar
Electronic components. Machines Ml, M2, and M3 produce 20%, 30%
and 50% of the components respectively. It is known that the
probabilities that the machines produce defective components are 1% for
M1, 2% for M2, and 3% for M3. If a component is selected randomly from
a large batch, and that component is defective, find the probability that it
was produced by:
(a) M2, and (b) M3.
14. Consider the sample consisting of the following nine results :
2.3, 7.2, 3.7, 4.6, 5.0, 7.0, 3.7, 4.9, 4.2.
a) Find the median.
b) Find the lower quartile.
c) Find the upper quartile.
d) Estimate the probability that an item, from the population from
which this sample came, would be less than 4.9.
e) Estimate the probability that an item from that population would
be less than 3.
15. An office Supply warehouse has boxes of pencils, 100 pencils to the
box. Information about the entire warehouse as well as sample of boxes
is shown below:
Number of defectives per box Number of boxes Number of boxes
( in warehouse) ( in sample)
0 1500 50
1 250 20
2 75 3
3 40 3
4 10 1
(a) A quality control technician is interested in the number of boxes with
more than two defectives. What is the value of the parameter?
(b) A quality control technician is interested in the proportion of boxes
with no more than one defective pencil. What is the value of the statistic?
16.The probabilities of various numbers of failures in a mechanical test
are as follows:
Pr[0 failures] = 0.21, Pr[l failure] = 0.43, Pr[2 failures] = 0.28,
Pr[3 failures] =0.08, Pr[more than 3 failures] = 0.
(a) Show this probability function as a graph.
(a) Sketch a graph of the corresponding cumulative distribution function.
(b) What is the expected number of failures?
17. A discrete random variable, X, has three possible results with the
Following probabilities:
Pr [X = 1] = 1/6
4
Pr [X = 2] = 1/3
Pr [X = 3] = 1/2
No other results can occur.
(a) Sketch a graph of the probability function.
(b) What is the mean or expected value of this random variable?
(c) What are the variance and standard deviation of this random variable?
18. Under normal operating conditions 1.5% of the transistors produce in
a factory are defective. An inspector takes a random sample of forty
transistors and finds that two are defective.
a) What is the probability that exactly two transistors will be defective
from a random sample of forty under normal operating conditions?
b) What is the probability that more than two transistors will be defective
from a random sample of forty if conditions are normal?
19. A control system is set up so that when production conditions are
normal, only 6% of items from the production line gives readings beyond
a particular limit. If more than two of six successive items are beyond the
limit, production is stopped and all machine settings are examined. What
is the probability that production will be stopped in this way when
production conditions are normal?
20. A sample of eleven electric bulbs is drawn every day from those
manufactured at a plant. The eleven bulbs are tested before shipment to
the customer. An analysis of the test data collected over a number of
years reveals that the probability of finding no defective bulb in a sample
of eleven bulbs is 0.5688. Probabilities of defective bulbs are random and
independent of previous results.
a) What is the probability of finding exactly three defective bulbs in a
sample?
b) What is the probability of finding three or more defective bulbs in a
sample?
21. Among a group of five people selected at random from a particular
population it is known that the probability that no one will be 30 or over
is 0.01024.
a) What is the probability that exactly one person in the group is under
30?
b) Calculate the mean and variance of the probability distribution of the
number of persons over 30 and compare to the formula values for this
type of distribution.
c) Given three such groups, what is the probability that two out of three
groups have no more than two persons 30 or over?
d) State any assumptions.
5
22. Customers arrive at a checkout counter at an average rate of 1.5 per
minute. What distribution will apply if reasonable assumptions are made?
List those assumptions. Find the probabilities that
a) exactly two will arrive in any given minute;
b) at least three will arrive during an interval of two minutes;
c) at most 13 will arrive during an interval of six minutes.
23. Records of an electrical distribution system in a particular area
indicate that over the past twenty years there have been just six years in
which lightning has not hit a transformer. Assume that the factors
affecting lightning hits on transformers have not changed over that time,
and that hits occur at random and independently.
a) Then what would be the best estimate of the average number of hits
on transformers per year?
b) In how many of the next ten years would we expect to have more than
two hits on transformers in a year?
24. The mean number of letters received each year by the university
requesting information about the programs offered by a particular
department is 98.8. Assume that letters are received randomly
throughout a year which consists of 52 weeks.
a) What is the probability of receiving no letters in a particular week?
b) What is the probability of receiving two or more letters in a particular
week?
c) What is the probability of receiving no letters in any four-week period?
d) What is the probability of having two weeks in a specified four-week
period with no letters?
25. In analysis of the treated water from a sewage treatment process,
liquid containing harmful cells was placed on a slide and examined
systematically under a microscope. One hundred counts of the number of
harmful cells in 1 mm by 1 mm squares were made, with the following
frequencies being obtained.
Count 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Frequency 1 3 8 14 17 19 14 12 6 2 2 2 0
Fit a Poisson distribution to these data. Calculate expected Poisson
frequencies to compare with the observed frequencies. Is the fit
reasonably good?
26. A continuous random variable X has the following probability density
function:
1
f(x) = k x 3 for 0 < x < 1
f(x) = 0 for x < 0 and x > 1
a) Find k.
6
b) Find the cumulative distribution function.
c) Find the probability that 0.3 < X < 0.6.
d) Find the expected value of X.
e) Find the variance and standard deviation of X.
27. Diameters of bolts produced by a particular machine are normally
distributed with mean 0.760 cm and standard deviation 0.012 cm.
Specifications call for diameters from 0.720 cm to 0.780 cm.
a) What percentage of bolts will meet these specifications?
b) What percentage of bolts will be smaller than 0.730 cm?
28. The resistance for resistors of a certain type is a random variable X
having the normal distribution with mean 9 ohms and standard deviation
0.4 ohms. An resistor is acceptable if its resistance is between 8.6 ohms
and 9.8 ohms.
(a) What is the probability that a randomly chosen resistor is acceptable?
(b) What is the probability that out of four randomly and independently
selected resistors, two are acceptable?
29. A shipment of N = 20 electronic toys contains 5 that malfunction. If n
= 10 of them are randomly chosen what is the probability that 2 of the 10
will be defective?
30. 12 refrigerators have been returned to the distributor because of a
high pitched oscillating noise. Suppose that 4 of the 12 have a defective
compressor and the rest less serious problems. 6 refrigerators are
selected at random for problem identification. Let X be the number of
those found with defective compressor. Find the expected value
and variance of X and the probability P(X = 3).
31. Let X ~ Poisson (8), i.e. X has the Poisson distribution with parameter
= 8. Find: a) P(X 5), b) P (6 X 9), and c) P(X 10).
32. Suppose P (A) = 0.25, P (B) = 0.62, P(C) = 0.11, and we are given
that P (A B) = 0.17, P(A C) = 0.02, and P(B C) = 0.63.
Find a) P (A C) and b) P (B C).
33. Suppose 10% of all a certain type of software widgets have
connectivity problems. Suppose that simple random samples of 10 such
widgets are installed. What is the probability that:
(a) None of the 10 have connectivity problems?
(b) The first widget installed has connectivity problems but the rest do
not?
(c) Exactly one of the 10 has connectivity problems?
