MATH 203

PRINCIPLES OF STATISTICS I
Midterm examination
October 19, 2012
Version C
Student Name:
Student Number:
Instructions:
1. There are 6 pages to this exam, including this title page.
2. Answer all questions directly on the questionnaire (use back for rough calculations only).
3. The total number of marks for the exam is 40.
Material permitted:
1. One 8.5 11 sheet with hand-written personal notes (on both sides if desired)
2. Pocket calculators and language dictionaries
Question 1 [4 points]
A temperature on the Fahrenheit scale (
o
F) can be converted to the Celsius scale (
o
C) by the
formula
o
C = 5
o
F/9 160/9. For example, 50
o
F corresponds to 5 50/9 160/9 = 10
o
C.
Suppose that the temperature was measured at noon every day of January at the Toronto
Pearson Airport and that the following summary statistics were found on the Fahrenheit scale:
Mean Median Mode Range Standard Deviation
27 18 9 27 9
Convert these summary statistics to the Celsius scale. No details required.
(a) Mean:
(b) Median:
(c) Range:
(d) In what units would the variance be expressed?
Question 2 [4 points]
Highland & Dabney (Appl. Psych. Crimin. Justice, 2009) investigated the personality charac-
teristics of drug dealers in order to shed light on their motivation for participating in the illegal
drug market. Their sample consisted of 100 convicted drug dealers who attended a court-
mandated counselling program. Each dealer was scored on the Wanting Recognition (WR)
Scale, which provides a quantitative measure of a persons level of need for approval and sensi-
tivity to social situations. (Higher scores indicate a greater need for approval.) The sample of
drug dealers had a mean WR score of 39, with a standard deviation of 6.
(a) Find and interpret the z-score for a drug dealer with a WR score of 45 points.
(b) Assuming that the distribution of WR scores is mound-shaped and symmetric, what
proportion of the sampled drug dealers should have WR scores below 39 points?
2
Question 3 [8 points]
In 1879, the American physicist Albert A. Michelson attempted to determine the velocity of
light in air by carrying out ve experiments of 20 consecutive runs each. The following boxplots
show the results of his experiments (in km/sec minus 299,000). The correct answer (734.5
km/sec) has since been found and is indicated by the horizontal line across the boxplots.
1 2 3 4 5
7
0
0
8
0
0
9
0
0
1
0
0
0
(a) Which experiment has the smallest median?
(b) Which experiment has the largest interquartile range?
(c) Give an estimate of the interquartile range for Experiment 5.
(d) Which experiment exhibits the highest degree of symmetry?
(e) Does Experiment 3 exhibit positive (right) or negative (left) skewness?
(f) Which experiment presents the largest number of outliers?
(g) With hindsight, which experiment yielded the best results? Justify your answer.
3
Question 4 [6 points]
In a survey of all known non-hospital abortion providers in the United States, Henshaw & Finer
(Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2003) classied 358 providers according to
case load (i.e., number of abortions performed per year) and whether they permit their patients
to take the abortion drug misoprostol at home or require the patients to return to the abortion
facility to receive the drug. The responses are summarized below.
Permit Drug at Home
Number of Abortions Yes No Totals
Fewer than 50 170 48 218
50 or More 130 10 140
Totals 300 58 358
(a) What is the probability that the provider does not permit home use of the abortion drug?
(b) What is the probability that the home provider does not permit home use of the abortion
drug or has a case load of 50 or more abortions per year?
(c) What is the probability that the home provider does not permit home use of the abortion
drug and has a case load of 50 or more abortions per year?
4
Question 5 [9 points]
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Oct. 2009), 54% of Internet users
have a wireless connection to the Internet via a laptop, cell phone, game console, or other mobile
device. Of these wireless users, 25% use Twitter to share updates about themselves.
(a) What is the probability that an Internet user has a wireless connection and uses Twitter?
(b) Consider a random sample of four Internet users. What is the probability that they all
have a wireless connection?
(c) Given that four Internet users have a wireless connection, what is the probability that
they all use Twitter?
5
Question 6 [9 points]
A manufacturing process is such that at the outset, 2% of the units are defective. Before the
units are put on sale, a non-destructive test procedure is applied to all of them; this procedure
gives 2% false positive indications and 5% false negative. Units which fail to pass the inspection
are reworked; a corrective procedure is applied to them. This correction procedure does not
aect any good unit and corrects 90% of the defective units. The reworked units are then put
on sale without any further testing.
(a) A customer buys a unit. What is the probability that it is non-defective?
(b) A customer buys a unit. What is the probability that it has been reworked?
(c) The unit bought by the customer turns out to be non-defective. What is the probability
that it was originally defective?
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