Assignment:
For Q1 and 2, determine whether a probability distribution is given. If it is not described, identify the requirements that are not satisfied. If it is described, find its mean and standard deviation.
Q1. When manufacturing DVDs for Sony, batches of DVDs are randomly selected and the number of defects x is found for each batch.
x P(x)
0 .502
1 .365
2 .098
3 .011
4 .001
Q2. Air American has a policy of routinely overbooking flights, because past experience shows that some passengers fail to show. The random variable x represents the number of passengers who cannot be boarded because there are more passengers than seats.
x P(x)
0 .805
1 .113
2 .057
3 .009
4 .002
Q3. Reader's Digest recently ran a sweepstakes in which prizes were listed along with the chances of winning: $1,000,000 (1 chance in 90,000,000), $100,000 (1 chance in 110,000,000), $25,000 (1 chance in 110,000,000), $5000 (1 chance in 36,667,000), and $2500 (1 chance in 27,500,000).
a. Find the expected value of the amount won for one entry.
b. Find the expected value if the cost of entering this sweepstakes is the cost of a postage stamp (37 cents). Is it worth entering this contest?
Q4. Assume that in a test of a gender-selection technique, a clinical trial results in 12 girls in 14 births. Refer to the table below and find the indicated probabilities.
Probabilities of Girls
x (girls) P(x)
0 .000
1 .001
2 .006
3 .022
4 .061
5 .122
6 .183
7 .209
8 .183
9 .122
10 .061
11 .022
12 .006
13 .001
14 .000
a. Find the probability of exactly 12 girls in 14 births
b. Find the probability of 12 or more girls in 14 births
c. Which probability is relevant for determining whether 12 girls in 14 births is unusually high: the result from part (a) or part (b)?
d. Does 12 girls in 14 births suggest that the gender-selection technique is effective? Why or why not?
Q5: Assume that a procedure yields a binomial distribution with a trial repeated n times. Use the binomial probability formula to find the probability of x successes given the probability p of success on a single trial.
n = 6, x = 2, p = 0.45
Q6. The Telektronic Company purchases large shipments of fluorescent bulbs and uses this acceptance sampling plan: Randomly select and test 24 bulbs, then accept the whole batch if there is only one or none that doesn't work. If a particular shipment of thousands of bulbs actually has a 4% rate of defects, what is the probability that this whole shipment will be accepted?