PROBABILITY AND PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

Question no 1 OCT 91 Q1

According to municipal records 80% of the families living in certain area, own a car. If 5 families are
randomly selected from this area, calculate the probability that:

i) No family out of 5 will own a car. 3

ii) 1 family out of 5 will own a car. 3
iii) 2 families out of 5 will own a car. 3
iv) 3 families out of 5 will own a car. 3
v) At least one family out of 5 will own a car. 4

Question no 2 Oct 1991 Q1

a) A population follows a normal distribution with a mean of 45 and standard deviation of 6. What
proportion of this population will have values:
i) Between 55 and 60. Show by a sketch. 3
ii) Between 60 and 65. Show by a sketch. 3
iii) Between 40 and 50. Show by a sketch. 3
iv) More than 60. Show by a sketch. 3
b) Find the proportion of the population for values which are ‘more than 65’ and for values which are
‘less than 25’ and shown that these are equal.

Question no 3 Oct 91 Q5 (vi)

Write short notes on the following:-

Binomial distribution. 4

Question no 4 Apr 92 Q7

a) A certain factory manufactures a certain item, out of the total number of items that are produced by
the factory, 3% are found to be defective. A sample of 10 items is selected for inspection. Use both,
binomial and Poisson distributions to find the probability that 2 or more defective items are found. 10
b) A salesman has estimated that the probability of making a sale when calling on a customer is 0.5. if
this salesman calls on 5 customers on a given day. What is the probability of making exactly 3 sales?

Question no 5 Apr 92 Q9 (iii)

Write short notes on the following:-

Normal probability distribution 4

Question no 6 Oct 92 Q4

The administration of a telephone company claims that only 2.5% of the telephone owners are dissatisfied
with the company. In order to verify the claim of the company, a random sample of 30 telephone owners
is obtained. Assuming that the claim of the company is true, obtain the probability that out of 30 owners,
the member of dissatisfied owners would be less than 3.
Question no 7 Oct 92 Q10

A pharmaceutical company produces a cough syrup in bottles and finds that only 6% of these bottles are
defective.

a) If 6 of such bottles are selected, what is the probability that one would be defective.
b) If samples of 6 bottles are selected in a similar way, 100 times, how many times the selection would
consists of exactly one defective.

Question no 8 April 1993 Q8

a) In a survey of M.B.A. students, 75% said that they expect to be promoted within a month after
receiving their degree. If this proportion holds for the population, find, for a sample of size 5, the
probability that the number expecting a promotion within a month after graduation is:
i) At least 3 4
ii) No more than 3 4
b) Of the items produced by a certain company, 13% are defective. A sample of 25 items is selected for
inspection.
i) What is the probability that less than four defectives are found. 4
ii) What is the probability that three or more defectives are found. 4

Question no 9 April 1993 Q9

a) A production supervisor finds that employees, on the average, complete a task in ten minutes. The
times required to complete the task are approximately normally distributed with a standard deviation
of three minutes. Find the following:
i) The proportion of employees requiring more than five minutes, to complete the task. 4
ii) The proportion of employees requiring less than five minutes, to complete the task. 4

b) The mean number of years of experience of a certain population of sales persons is 10 years. The
standard deviation is 3 years. What is the probability that a random sample of 81 of these sales perons
yields a means greater that 10 years and 8 months.8

Question no 10 April 93 Q10

A personnel director must select from among ten persons to fill four job openings. Four of the candidates
belong to a minority group. If the four positions are filled at random from among the candidates:

i) What the probability that no minority group member will be selected. 4

ii) What is the probability tha at least one minority group member will be selected. 4
iii) What is the probability that at most one minority group member will be selected. 4
iv) What is the probability that two members of the minority group will be selected. 4

Question no 11 Oct 93 Q9

A car manufacturing company has determined that 30% if all oil tanks that were installed on its 1988
product are defective.

i) If 5 cars are recalled, what is the probability that more than 2 will need new oil tanks. 6
ii) What is the average number of cars with defective oil tanks out of 10,000 cars. 4
iii) If 5 cars are recalled, what is the probability that no car will need a new oil tank. 6
Question no 12 Oct 93 Q10

The table given below describes the adult population along with income group of a good locality in a
large city:

Table; showing (age X income) of audit group.

Income (Rs.) /p.m.

Under 20,000 Over
Age Rs. 20,000 To 50,000 50,000
Under 25 years 950 1,000 50
25-45 years 450 2,050 1,500
Over 45 years 50 950 1,000
A consultant firm plans to randomly select one adult from this locality to evaluate the establishment of a
new restaurant. Obtain the probabilities of the following events:

i) Person selected is under 25 years. 4

ii) Person has income under Rs. 20,000. 4
iii) Person is over 45 years and has income over s. 50,000. 4
iv) Person is between 25 & 45 years of age or is over 45 years. 4

Question no 13 Apr 94 Q8

a) A particular test is designed by a private testing service. It is known that for all tests administered last
year the distribution of scores was approximately normal with mean 75 and standard deviation 7. 5
i) A particular employer requires job candidates to score at least 80 on the test. Approximately last
year the distribution of scores was approximately, what percentage of the test scores during the
past year exceeded 80. 4
ii) The testing service reported to a particular employer that the score of one of its hob candidats fell
th
at the 98 percentile of the distribution (i.e approximately 98% of the scores are lower that the
candidate’s and only 2% were higher). What was the candidate’s score. 6
b) A buyer of logs from a wood company must determine whether to buy a piece of land containing
5000 pine trees. If 1000 of the trees are at least 40 feet tall, the buyer will purchase the land;
otherwise, he will not. The owner of the land reports that the distribution of heights of the trees is
normal, has a mean of 30 feet and has a standard deviation of 4 feet. Based on this information what
should the buyer decide. 6

Question no 14 Apr 94 Q9

The types of occupations of the 83,000 employed workers are described in the table and their relative
frequencies are listed. A worker is selected at random from this population and his or her occupation is to
be determined (Assume that each worker in the population has only one occupation).

Occupation Relative Frequency

MALE WORKERS 0.555
0.167
0.144
0.047
0.121
0.106
FEMALE WORKERS 0.445
Managerial/Professional 0.120
Technical/Sales/Administrative 0.198
Service 0.074
Precision Production 0.011
Operators/Fabricators 0.042
i) What is the probability that the worker will be a male service worker? 4
ii) What is the probability that the worker will be a manager or a professional? 4
iii) What is the probability that the worker will be female professional or a female operator/fabricator? 4
iv) What is the probability that the worker will NOT be in a technical/sales/administrative occupation? 4

Question no 15 Oct 94 Q8
Age Category
Job Category A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
< 20 21-25 26-30 31-35 >35 Total
B1: Clerical. 20 20 15 10 5 70
B2:Custodial 3 6 3 2 1 15
B3:Craft Workers 15 30 35 20 10 110
B4:Sales People. 1 5 10 5 2 23
B5:Junior 0 1 5 2 0 8
Executives.
B6:Execytives. 0 0 2 2 1 5
Total 39 62 70 41 19 231

Based on this table find the probability that satisfy each of the following conditions:

a) The person selected is neither an executive nor a junior executive. 2

b) The person selected is both an executive or a junior executive. 2
c) The person selected is more than 30 years old and is clerical or custodial. 2
d) The person selected is a craft worker 35 years old or younger. 2
e) The person selected is a craft worker or a sales person and is between 21 and 30 years old. 2
f) P (B1  A5) 2
g) P (A2  B6) 2
h) P (A1  B6) 2

Question no 16 Oct 94 Q9

a) For a certain group of people, it is estimated that 40% use a particular type of credit card and
primarily for installment buying. Suppose that this statement is correct and 12 persons picked at
random from this group are questioned on the matter. What is the probability that the number using
their credit cards in this manner is:
i) No more that 1? 4
ii) At least 1? 2
b) Scores made by employees on a manual dexterity are normally distributed with a mean of 600 and
 standard deviation of 100.
i) What proportion of employees taking the test are scored between 450 and 700? 4
ii) Management has decided that those employees whose scores are among the top 10% will be
considered for promotion to a better job. What score must an employee in order to be eligible for
promotion? 4

Question no 17 Apr 95 Q 5 (b,c)

a) Student who have taken a standardized aptitude test for graduate study have a mean score of  = 500,
with the standard deviation  = 100. The scores are normally distributed. 4
th
i) What is the score at the 50 percentile for the distribution of scores?
ii) What is the approximate middle 95% range for this distribution of scores?
b) Suppose that 40 and 90 are two observations of a population data and that their Z scores are -2 and 3
respectively. Using just this information, is it possible to determine the population’s mean and
standard deviation? If so, find them if not, explain why it is not possible. 4

Question no 18 Apr 95 Q7

a) A builder is bidding on a construction hob that promises a profit of Rs 120,000 with probability 3/5
and loss of Rs 30,000 with a probability of 2/5. 6
i) What is the builders expected profit if the gets the job?
ii) Would he be better off bidding on a job that promised a profit of Rs 90,000 with a probability of
4/5 and a loss of Fs 31,500 with a probability of 1/5?
b) A large corporation requires all new employees to go through a 1-year training programme. Personnel
files show that 3 out of every trainees complete the programme and stay with the company for at least
3 years. If the company hires 6 new employees and the dropout rate remains unchanged. What is the
probability that at least 3 trainees will be with the company after 3 years? 6
c) What is the probability of rolling two dice to obtain the sum 9 or the number 4 on at least one die. 4

Question no 19 Oct 95 Q5 (d)

State the empirical rule for a symmetrical or a bell shaped distribution. 3

Question no 20 Oct 95 Q7

a) To project the inventory required for a particular type of micro-wave over, and appliance dealer
analyzed the weekly number of sales over a long period of time. The appropriate probability
distribution of ‘x’ sales per week is shown in the table.

X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
P (x) 0.01 0.07 0.18 0.34 0.24 0.12 0.03 0.01
Find the expected number of sales per week. 4

b) A salesman from his records figures that the probability of marking a sale on the first call is 0.7. If he
makes subsequent calls on the same person who has not yet bought, the probability falls by 0.1 each
call. What is the probability of selling on three calls? 6
c) If 20% of the bolts produced by a machine are defective, determine the probability that out of 4 bolts
chosen at random (i) 1 (ii) 0 (iii) at most 2 bolts will be defective. 6
Question no 21 Oct 95 Q8 (b)

An assembly line operation produces items of which 80% are satisfactory. A quality control inspector
samples 30 of them at random. Using normal approximation, what is the probability that at least 25 of
them are satisfactory? 6

Question no 22 BAC May 94 Q8 (c)

The life of a ceiling fan, newly introduced in the market is normally distributed with mean 10 years and
standard deviation 2 years. What is the probability that the life of a fan is less than six years? 3

Question no 23 BAC Nov 94 Q6 (c)

In a population with mean 16 inches and standard deviation 3 inches, what value in inches corresponds to
a Z score of 2.4? 2

Question no 24 BAC Nov 94 Q7

a) Differentiate between classical and relative frequency approaches of probability. 4

b) It is known that 6% of the production of a manufacturer is defective. What is the probability that in a
random sample of 5, at least one is defective. 4
c) A clerk leaves his house at 7.00 am. For his office. The time taken to reach the office is normally
distributed with mean of 45 minutes and standard deviation of 10 minutes. What is the probability
that he will be late in the office on a randomly selected day if the office starts at 8. Am. [P (0  Z
1.5)]. 4

Question no 25 BAC Apr 95 Q9 (b)

The records of an airlines show that over a period to time, 528 of 600 flights arrived on time. Estimate the
probability that a given flight will not arrive on time. 3

Question no 26 BAC Apr 95 Q10

A census of a company’s 500 employees in regards to a certain proposal revealed that 125 of its 150
white-collar workers are in favour of the proposal, and a total of 125 workers opposed the proposal. All
the workers can be classified as either white-collar or blue-collar.

An employee is selected at random, what is the probability that he is in favour of the proposal? 2

Question no 27 BAC Nov 95 Q9

One card is selected at random from 80 cards numbered from 1 to 80. Find the probability that the number
on the card is a perfect square. 3

It is known that 6% of the production of a manufacturer is defective. What is the probability that the
number of defective product in a random sample of 4 will be exactly 2? 4

Marks obtained by the students in an examination follow a Normal distribution with mean of 72 marks
and standard deviation of 9 marks.
If top 100% of the students are to receive grade A, what minimum marks a students must get in order to
receive grade A? 6

Question no 28 Nov 96 Q9 (a, c)

There are 272 employees in an organization. 180 employees are graduates. 95 are females. 145 graduates
are males. What is the probability that a randomly selected employee is a male and not graduates.

A salesman has estimated that the probability of making a sale when calling on a customer is 0.5. If this
salesman calls on 5 customers on a given day, what is the probability of making 3 sales?

Question no 29 Nov 96 Q8 (b, c)

Two balanced dice are rolled. What is the probability that the sum of dots is a multiple of 5? 4

A machine produces 10% defective bolts. 400 bolts produced by the machine are randomly selected.
What is the probability that at-least 30 bolts are defective?

Given: P (Z  - 1.75) = 0.0401 4

Question no 30 FDN Nov 96 Q 10(b)

6 cards are drawn from a deck of 52 cards. What is the probability of getting 3 kings if the cards are
drawn:

a) With replacement
b) Without replacement

Question no 31 Apr 97 Q9 (a, b, c )

a) Define classical approach of probability. 3

What are the assumptions of this approach?
b) Age and sex of 5 person are given below: 4

Age in year Sex

30 Male
32 Male
45 Female
20 Female
40 Male
A person is selected at random.

What is the probability that the person is either female or over 31 years of age?

c) A production supervisor found that employee, on the average, complete a certain task in 10 minute.
The times required to complete the task are normally distributed with a standard deviation of 3
minutes. 6

Find the proportion of employees completing the task in:

i) More than 7 minute.

ii) More than 7 minutes but not more than 13
minutes. -Given: P (Z  1.00) = 0.8413
Question no 32 Oct 97 Q3 (c)

Management believes that 20% of the people watching a television advertisement about their new product
will purchase the product. Five persons who watched their advertisement are picked at random. What is
the probability that 3 persons will purchase the product? 6

Question no 33 Oct 97 Q4 (b)

Sine A and B are two dependent events.

P (A) = 0.25
P (B) = 0.33
P (A  B) = 0.43
Find (i) P (A  B) (ii) P(B/A) 4

Question no 34 Mar 98

The mean and variance of a binomial random variable and 3.5 and 1.05 respectively.

i) Fine the parameters n and p

ii) Use binomial formula to calculate P (X = 2). 4

Question no 35 FDN Oct 97 Q4 (a)

Define sample space of an experiment. What will be the sample space when two dice are rolled.

Question no 36 FDN Mar 98 Q4 (c)

A company has a large stock of steel rods with a mean diameter of 4.17 inches and standard deviation of
0.08 inches. The company received an order of such rods of diameter with 4.2  0.05 inches. If the
diameter of the rod is normally distributed. What proportion of rods will meet the specification? 6

Z-value Area of the left of Z

-0.25 0.4013
1.00 0.8413

Question no 37 FDN Sep 98 Q4 (b)

In a normal distribution with standard deviation 4, the probability that an observation, selected at random,
exceeds 30 is 0.0606. Find the mean of the distribution. 4

Question no 38 Sep 98

a) The probability that a doctor correctly diagnose a particular illness is 0.07. Given that the doctor
makes an incorrect diagnosis, the probability that the patient enters a law suit is 0.09. what is
probability that the doctor makes an incorrect diagnosis and the patient sues? 4
b) 6 cards are drawn at random from a deck of 52 cards. What is the probability of getting 3 kings if the
cards are drawn:
i) With replacement
ii) Without replacement 6
Question no 39 Spring 99 Q5 (b, c)

a) A six-sided die is rolled. What is the probability that either a three or a four will fall uppermost?
b) In how many ways a Committee can be formed from 10 women and 8 men if it has to contain 5
members, with 3 women and 2 men.

Question no 40 Spring 99 Q5 (e)

In a Binomial Distribution, p = 0.2 and n = 10. Find its mean.

Question no 41 Spring 99 Q8 (a, b)

a) Events A and B are statistically independent with P(B) =0.5 and P (A/B) = 0.2. Find:
i) P (A)
ii) P (A  B)
iii) P (A  B)
iv) P (B/A) 6
b) A manufacturing facility produces defective items at a 10 percent rate (90 percent of production is in
acceptable form). In a sample of 8 items, what is the probability (giving answer to 3 decimals), that:
i) All eight item will be in acceptable form
ii) Two or less will be defective. 5

Question no 42 Autumn 99 Q5 (a, d)

a) Find the probability of obtaining a total of 8 with two dice. 2

b) A committee of 6 is to be chosen from 7 men and 4 women. Find in how many ways at least 3 women
are chosen. 2

Question no 43 Autumn 99 Q6 (c)

It is known that the waist measurement of boys of certain age is distributed normally with mean 66 cms
and standard deviation of 5 cms. If a boy is picked a random, find the probability that he will have a waist
measurement of less than 64 cms. 3

Question no 44 Autumn 99 Q6 (c)

A team of 4 is chosen at random from 5 girls and 6 boys. In how many ways can the team be chosen, if:

i) There is no restriction.
ii) The team can contain only one boy. 3

Question no 45 Spring 2000 Q7 (a, b, d)

a) A box contains 5 white and 5 black balls. If 3 balls are selected what is the probability.
i) That all will be of similar colou ; 1
rd
ii) That first 2 balls will be of same colour and 3 of a different colour. 1
b) A bag contains 8 good items and 2 defective ones. If 2 items are selected at random without
replacement (the first is not replaced before the second is drawn), find the probability that the first is
 good and the second is defective. 2
c) The probability that a female will survive to age 60 is 8/10 and the probability that a male will
survive to age 60 is 2/3. What is the probability that: i) Both will be alive at age 60
ii) Only a female will be alive at age 60
iii) At least one of the two will be alive at age 60
iv) Neither will be alive at age 60. 6

Question no 46 Spring 2000 Q8 (a)

A product is tested in batches of 5 items. It is estimated that 10% of the product is defective. Determine
the probability that:

i) One is defective
ii) More than 2 are defective. 4

Question no 47 Autumn 2000 Q6 (a, b)

a) What is the probability of an event

i) Which is sure to happen
ii) Which is impossible 1
b) An insurance company estimates that in the age group 40-50, 10% if the total population has ‘critical
diseases’. If 10 persona are selected at random, what is the probability that 2 will be suffering from
critical diseases? 3

Question no 48 Autumn 2000 Q7 (b)

Product are tested at two separate points to determine whether each product is defective or not. Each test
is statistically independent. The probability of finding a defective product at point 1 is 0.2 and at point 2 is
0.1.

i) What is the probability of finding a defective product at both points?

ii) What is the probability of finding a defective product at point 2, given that a defective product was
found at point? 3

Question no 49 Autumn 2000 Q8 (b)

On a busy airport an airplane lands after an average of 15 minutes. Based on poisson distribution what is
–1
the probability that in a 15 minutes internal, 3 or more aeroplanes will land (e = 0.3676).

Question no 50 Spring 2001 Q7

a) A class contains 10 boys and 20 girls of which half the boys and half the girls have brown eyes. Find
the probability that a person selected at random is a boy or has brown eyes. 2
b) Of the bolts produced by a factory, 2% are defective. In a shipment of 3600 bolts from the factory,
find expected number of defective bolts and the standard deviation. 3
c) A section of tunnel is lit by 2000 electric bulbs, which are kept burning day and night. The
manufacturer says that the lines of the bulbs are normally distributed about a mean of 820 hours with
standard deviation of 90 hours. How may electric bulbs will be expected to fail before 1000 hours. 3
d) Among a for department’s 16 trucks, 5 emit excessive amount of smoke. If eight of the trucks are
randomly selected inspection, what is the probability that this sample will include at least 4 of the
trucks, which emit excessive amount of smoke? 4
Question no 51 Spring 2001 Q8 (c)

A large normally distributed populations has a mean of 1.14 and standard deviation of 0.25. A sample of
size 100 is selected. What is the probability that sample mean is greater than 1.16 3

Question no 52 Autumn 2001 Q7

a) A company has 7 directors. In how many ways can the following be selected:
i) Chairman, MD, Executive Director.
ii) 3 members to form a sub-committee. 2
b) A number from 1 to 10 is selected at random twice. What is the probability that the number selected
in the second attempt is greater than the number selected previously. 6
c) It is known that 20 percent of all persons given a certain medication get drowsy within two minutes.
Find the probabilities that among 14 persons given the medication:
i) At most two will get drowsy within two minutes;
ii) At least five will get drowsy within two minutes;
iii) Two, three or four will get drowsy within two minutes. 6

Question no 53 Spring 2002 Q7

a) A firm which conducts consumer surveys by mail, has found that 30% of those families receiving a
questionnaire will return it. In a survey of 10 families, what is the probability that exactly five
families will return the questionnaire? 3
b) Records show that the probability is 0.0006 that a car will have a flat tyre while driving through a
tunnel. Use the poisson approximation to the Binomial Distribution to find the probability that at least
2 of 10,000 cars passing through the tunnel will have flat tyres. 6
c) The names of 4 men and 6 women are written on slips of paper and placed in a box. Four names are
drawn without replacement. What is the probability that 2 are men and 2 are women. 4

Question no 54 Spring 2002 Q8 (a)

A random sample of size 15 is taken from a normally distributed population with mean 60 and the
standard deviation 4. Find the probability that the mean of the sample is less than 58. 4

Question no 55 Autumn 2002 Q8

a) On a single toss of a pair of fair dice, what is the probability that a sum of 7 appears and both dice
show a number less than 4? 2
b) A firm of chartered accountants has two vacancies for trainee students and is trying to recruit
foundation passed students. In the past, 40 percent of the students who were offered the training
contract have not reported to join. 3

If 2 students are offered training contract, what is the probability that at least one will join?

Question no 56 Autumn 2002 Q9 (a)

Grades on a national aptitude test have been found to be normal distributed with a mean of 250 and a
standard deviation of 25. What is the probability that a student selected at random will score between 230
and 256? 5
Question no 57 Spring 2003 Q7 (a, b, c)

a) A sample survey conducted in a city shows that the probabilities are 0.87, 0.36 and 0.29 that a family
randomly chosen will own a color T.V set, a black-and-white T.V. set, or both, respectively. What is
the probability that such a family will own at least one of the two kinds of set? 3
b) In graduate school of business an acceptance rate of 30% was reported. If 10 applicants are selected at
random, find the probability that:
i) More than 8 were accepted
ii) Fewer than 8 were accepted
iii) Between 5 and 8 (including 5 and 8) were accepted. 5
c) An analysis of the test scores for an examination revealed that they approximate a normal distribution
with a mean of 75 and a standard deviation of 8. The examiner wants to award “A” grade to the
upper 10 percent of test grades. What is the dividing point between an A and a lower grade? 3

Question no 58 Spring 2003

A population of 500 children has a mean 1Q score of 100 and a standard deviation of 20 points. If a
random sample of 30 children is selected, what is the probability that the mean 1Q of the group exceeds
110? 3

Question on 59 Autumn 2003 Q8 (a)

a) The board of directors of a company consists of 12 members, 3 of whom are women. A committee of
3 members is randomly selected from the board.
i) What is the probability that all members of the committee are men?
ii) What is the probability that at least one member of the committee is a women?

Question no 60 Autumn 2003 Q9

a) The probability that a computer recovers from a rare virus attack is 0.4. if 15 computers are known to
have contracted with this virus, that is the probability that:
i) At least 12 computers survive;
ii) From 3 to 8 computers survive
b) Mean height, in the training camp, of the players of Pakistan basket ball team is 74.18 inches with a
variance of 10.8 inches. If the heights of the players are normally y distributed, how many players in a
group of 20 would expect to be over 6.5 feet tall?

Question no 61 Spring 2004 Q7

a) The following table provides a relative frequency distribution for the size of the farms in the province
of Punjab.

Size (acres) Relative Frequency

Under 10 0.087
10-49 0.192
50-99 0.156
100-179 0.173
180-259 0.098
260-499 0.143
 500-999 0.085
1000-1999 0.040
2000 & over 0.026

A farm is selected at random, determine the probability that the farm selected has:
i) Less than 2000 acres. 2
ii) At least 50 acres. 2
b) In an introductory statistics class. The number of males and females are shown in the following
frequency distribution table:

Sex Frequency
Male 17
Female 23
Two students are selected at random without replacement form the class. Find the probability that the
first student selected is female and second is male. 3

c) Current medical studies show that 30 percent of the population will suffer from the common cold
each winter. A group of 12 people is randomly selected. 3
i) What is the probability that exactly 5 in the group will have the common cold this winter?
ii) What is the probability that at least 5 in the group will have the common cold this winter?
iii) Compute the mean and variance of the number in the group that will have the common cold this
winter. 6

Question no 62 Autumn 2004 Q7 (b)

The weights of a group of children are approximately normally distributed with mean = 15.0 kg and
standard deviation = 1.75 kg.

i) What proportion of children will weigh between 13 and 16 kg?

ii) What proportion of children will weigh between 13 or more?
iii) The heaviest 5% of the children are to be studied further. What is the cutoff point between those who
will be studied, and those who will not be studied? 7

Question no 63 Autumn 2004 Q8

a) The Board of Directors of a company consists of 8 men and 4 women. A 4 number committee is to be
chosen at random from the Board:
i) What is the probability that all 4 members of the committee will be women?
ii) What is the probability that all 4 members of the committee will be men?
iii) Why the sum of the probabilities for (a) and (b) does not equal 1? Explain 5
b) It is estimated that 0.5% of the callers to a department will receive a busy signal. Using the ‘poisson
Distribution’, find the probability that of 1200 callers at least 5 will receive a busy signal. 5

Question no 64 Spring 2005 Q8 (b)

If 8 members of a tennis club are classified A players, 6 are classified B players and 10 are classified C
players, in how many different ways can 2 players from each group be chosen to represent the club. 4
Question no 65 Spring 2005 Q9

a) Out of 12 eggs in a refrigerator, 2 are rotten. From these 12 eggs, 4 egg are selected at random to
make a cake. What are the probabilities that:
i) Exactly one is rotten.
ii) At least one is rotten. 4
b) Suppose a poll of 10 employees is taken in a large company. The purpose is to determine x, the
number who favour unionization. Suppose that 40% of all company’s employees favour unionization:
i) Find the mean and standard deviation of x
ii) Find the probability that x < 4
iii) Find the probability that x > 6 6
c) Suppose a population consists of 15 items, 10 of which are acceptable. A sample of 4 items is
selected without replacement. What is the probability that exactly 3 are acceptable? 6

Question no 66 Autumn 2005 Q7

a) A student received a grade of 79 in a final examination in mathematics for which the mean grade was
76 and the standard deviation was 10. In the final examination in economic, for which the mean grade
was 91 and the standard deviation was 5, she received a grade of 92.

In which subject, her relative standing was higher. 3

b) A firm manufactures refrigerators at three plant locations A, B and C. For each location, the firm
maintains a record of the refrigerators made at that plant which require repair before expiration of
warranty. Following is the summary of the information about repairs:
  Plant ‘A’ produces 30% of all refrigerators and has a repair rate before warranty expiration, of 
 5%. 
  Plant ‘B’ produces 45% of all refrigerators and has a repair rate before warranty expiration, of 
3%. 

 Plant ‘C’ produces 25% of all refrigerators and has a repair rate before warranty expiration, of
7%. 

If a refrigerator requires repair before warranty expiration, what is the probability that it was
manufactured at Plant ‘B’? 3

Question no 67 Autumn 2005 Q11

a) Find the values of –Z and Z if the standard normal curve area between –Z and Z is 0.9700. 2
b) A normal distribution has a mean = 61.6. Find its standard deviation if 20% of the total area under the
curve lies to the right of x = 70.
c) In an experiment to determine the amount of time required to assemble a toy, the assembly time was
found to be a random variable having approximately a normal distribution with  = 27.8 minutes and
 = 4.0 minutes. What is the probability that this kind of toy can be assembled in less than 25.0
minutes? 3

Question no 68 Spring 2006 Q10

a) Among 18 members of a cricket club, there are 2 wicket keepers and 5 bowlers. In how many ways
can a team of 11 members be chosen so as to include only one wicket keeper and at least three
bowlers? 4
b) Seventy five percent of youths 12-15 years of age have a blood pressure less than 136. What is the
probability that a sample of 12 youths of that age group will include:
i) Exactly 4 who have a blood pressure greater than 136?
ii) At least 4 who have a blood pressure greater than 136? 5
c) The probability that a car will have a flat tyre while driving through a certain tunnel is 0.00006. Use
the poisson approximation to the binomial distribution, to find the probability that at least 2 out of
10,000 cars passing through this tunnel will have flat tyre. 4

Question no 69 Autumn 2006 Q11

a) A person is contesting for the directorship of two companies A & B. The chance of his success to
become the director of company A is 70%, whereas the possibility of his winning the directorship of
company B is 0.5. What is the probability that:
i) He will become the director of both the companies.
ii) He will become the director of at least one company
iii) He will not become the director in any of the two companies. 4
b) A box contains six blue ink pens and four red ink pens. In how many ways can three pens be drawn in
order to get at least one blue ink pen? 4

Question no 70 Autumn 2006 Q12

The driving time of an executive while driving form this home to his office is normally distributed with a
mean of 35 minutes and a standard deviation of 8 minutes. Assuming that total number of working days
in a year are 300, you are required to calculate the number of days in which he is expected to drive to
work:

a) In less than or equal to 30 minutes? 2

b) In more than or equal to 40 minutes? 2

Question no 71 Autumn 2006 Q13 (a)

The wholesaler of a toy 1000 pieces in stock, out of which 200 pieces are slightly defective mixed
randomly with each other. A retailer buys one dozen toys. What is the probability that exactly 10 toys are
defect free? 4

Question no 72 Spring 2007

A compressor manufacturer claims that average life of its compressors is 10,000 hours with a standard
deviation of 100 hours and is normally distributed. Find the probability that a random sample of 25
compressors will have an average life between, 9,980 hours and 10,050 hours.

Question no 73 Spring 2007

a) From the past records it has been determined that 60% of a college’s students loan applications are
approved. If ten applications are chosen at random, compute the following:
i) Probability that eight or more applications are approved:
ii) Number of applications that are expected to be approved; and
iii) Standard deviation of the number approved out of ten applications.
b) The score of an aptitude test are normally distributed with mean = 140 marks and σ =25 marks. Find
the passing marks if the result is 67%.
Question no 74 Spring 2007

a) A firm installed tow machines U and V, on January 1, 2007. The probability that the machines will
break down during the first year of operations is 0.2 and 0.1 for machines U and V respectively.
Compute the probability that one of the two machines will break down during the year.
b) At a university, 40% of the students take Statistics without Mathematics and 25% take Mathematics
without Statistics. 12% of the students take both. If a student is normally selected from a Statistics
class, what is the probability that he or she has also taken Mathematics?

Question no 75 Autumn 2007

A training program has been designed to upgrade the supervisory skills. Supervisors take different
number of hours to complete the program. A study of past participants indicated that the mean length of
time spent on the program is 500 hours with a standard deviation of 100 hours. What is the probability
that a candidate selected at random will require fewer than 580 hours to complete the program.

Question no 76 Autumn 2007

a) If two dice are rolled, what is the probability that either the sum of the two will be seven or at least
one of the dice will show the number 5?.
b) A loan officer in a bank estimates that the probability of default by an applicant is 0.025. Last month
the bank approved 40 loan applications. Using poisson distribution, find:
i) The probability that 3 loans will be defaulted.
ii) The probability that at least 3 loans will be defaulted.

Question no 77 Spring 2008

a) A husband and wife were interviewed for two different posts in the same organization. The
probability of husband’s selection is 1/7 and that of wife’s selection is 1/5. What is the probability
that:
i) Both of them will be selected.
ii) None of them will be selected.
iii) Only one of them will be selected.
b) A fair dice is rolled thrice. What is the probability that each time a six will appear?

Question no 78 Spring 2008

a) The two regression lines obtained in a correlation analysiss are:

5x = 6y + 24 and 1000y = 768x – 3708

Determine bxy; byx and the correlation coefficient ‘r’.

b) Students who finish the examinations more quickly than the rest are often thought to be smarter. The
following set of data shows the score of 12 students and the order in which they finished their
examination:
Question no 78 Spring 2008

A binomial ransom variable has a mean of 200 and a standard deviation of 10. Find the values of n and p.

Question no 79 Autumn 2008

a) If two fair dice are rolled together, which of the following is more likely:
i) Getting a total of 7 or more.
ii) Getting a total of 7 or less.
b) In a group of 12 international referees, there are three from Africa, four from Asia and five form
Europe. To officiate at a tournament, three referees are chosen at random from the group. Find the
probability that:
i) A referee is chosen from each Continent.
ii) Two referees are chosen from Asia.
iii) All the three referees are chosen from the same Continent.