BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

K. K. BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

First Semester 2015-2016,
Tutorial Sheet - 3

Course No. MATH F113 Course title: Probability and Statistics

Date: August 20, 2015

1. If the probability that a child is a boy is p, where 0 < p < 1, find the expected number of boys in a
family with n children, given that there is at least one boy.

2. A manufacturer of cotter pins knows that 5% of his product is defective. 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?

3. If X and Y are independent Poisson random variables with parameter k1 , k2 respectively, show that
the conditional distribution of X, given the value of X + Y , is a binomial distribution.

4. Suppose 5 independent identical laboratory experiments are to be undertaken. Each experiment is

externally sensitive to environmental conditions and there is only a probability r that it will be
completed successfully. Find the value of r that maximize the probability of 5th trial being the first
unsuccessful experiment.

5. Establish the memoryless property of the geometric distribution i.e. if X is a discrete r.v. following a
geometric distribution, then P (X > m + n|X > m) = P (X > n), where m and n are any two
positive integers. Prove the converse also if it is true.

6. 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.

7. The University of America runs two bus lines on campus: red and green. The red line serves north
campus and the green line serves south campus with a transfer station linking the two lines. Green
buses arrive randomly (according to a Poisson distribution) at the transfer station every 10 minutes.
Red buses also arrive randomly every 7 minutes. (a) What is the probability that 2 buses will stop at
the station during a 5 minute interval? (b) A student whose dormitory is located next to the station
has a class in 10 minutes. Either bus will take the student to the classroom building. The ride takes
5 minutes, after which the student will walk for around 3 minutes to reach the class room. What is
the probability that the student will make it to class on time?

8. It is known that screws produced by a certain company will be defective with probability 0.01
independently of each other. The company sells the screws in packages of 10 and offers a money back
guarantee that at most 1 of the 10 screws is defective. What proportion of packages sold must the
company replace ?

9. The following gambling game, known as the wheel of fortune, is very popular at many carnivals and
gambling casinos: A player bets on one of the numbers 1 through 6. Three dice are then rolled, and
if the number bet by the player appears i times, i = 1, 2, 3 then the player wins i units; the other
hand, if the number bet by the player does not appear on any of the dice, then the player loses 1
unit. Is this game fair to the player ?

10. 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 ?

11. A student is getting ready to take an important oral examination and is concerned about the
possibility of having an on day or off day. He figures that if he has an on day, then each of his
examiners will pass him independently of each other, with probability 0.8 whereas, if he has an off
day, this probability will be reduced to 0.4. Suppose that the student will pass the examination if a
majority of examiners pass him. If the student feels that he is twice as likely to have an off day as he
is to have an on day, should he request an examination with 3 examiners or with 5 examiners ?
12. A Mathematical textbook has 200 pages on which typographical errors in the equation could occur.
If there are in fact 5 errors randomly dispersed among these 200 pages. What is the probability that
a random sample of size 50 pages will contain at least one error ? How large must the random
sample be to assure that at least 3 errors will be found with 90% probability ?

13. Let b(x; n, p) = nx px (1 p)nx for x = 0, 1, 2, ........, n and B(x; n, p) = xk=0 b(k; n, p) for

P
x = 0, 1, 2, ........, n then prove that
(i) b(x; n, p) = b(n x; n, 1 p)
(ii) B(x; n, p) = 1 B(n x 1; n, 1 p)

14. Let X and Y be independent binomial random variables having respective parameters (n, p) and
(m, p). Then prove that the conditional probability mass function of X given that X + Y = k is
hypergeometric.

15. A job plant can pass inspection if there are no defects in 3 randomly chosen samples from a lot size
of 20 (a) Compute the probability of the plant passing inspection if there are 2 defects in the lot. (b)
Compute the probability of at least one defect. (c) Compute the probability of at most one
defect.(d) Compute the probability that the second item chosen is defective.

16. Twenty microprocessor chips are in stock. Three have etching errors that can not be detected by
naked eye. Five chips are selected and initially in the field equipment.(a) Find the density for X, the
number of chips selected that have etching errors. (b) Find E(X) and V ar(X). (c) Find the
probability that no chips with etching errors will be selected. (d) Find the probability that at least
one chip with an etching error will be chosen.

17. A distributor of computer software wants to obtain some customer feedback concerning its newest
package. Three thousand customers has purchased the package. Assume that 600 of these customers
are dissatisfied with the product. Twenty customers are randomly sampled and questioned about the
package. Let X denote the number of dissatisfied customers sampled.
(a) Find the density of X.
(b) Find E(X) and V ar(X).

18. (a) When will the sum of 2 binomial variate having distribution B(x; n1 , p1 )&B(y; n2 , p2 ) will also a
binomial variate ? (b)If the independent random variables X and Y are binomially distributed
respectively with n = 3, p = 13 and n = 5, p = 31 , write down the probability for X + Y 1.

19. 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 ?

20. 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 = 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.

21. If the 2 independent random variables X and Y , have the same geometric distribution, prove that
the conditional distribution of the X, given that X + Y = k, is a discrete uniform distribution
(Discrete Uniform Distribution: A discrete random variable is said to be uniformly distributed if it
assumes a finite number of values with each value occurring with the same probability e.g. outcomes
in rolling a die).

22. If X follows hypergeometric distribution with parameter n, r and N then show that
E(X k ) = nr
N E[(Y + 1)
k1 ] where Y is hypergeometric with parameter n 1, r 1, N 1.

************************************