WORKSHEET BINOMIAL AND POISSON DISTRIBUTIONS

BINOMIAL 1. A university found that 20% of its students withdraw without completing the introductory statistics course. Assume that 20 students have registered for the course this term. a) What is the probability that exactly two will withdraw? [4] b) What is the probability that 2 or fewer will withdraw? [5]

2. In a recent survey, 70% of human resource directors thought that it was very important for business students to take a course in business ethics. For a random sample of 5 human resource directors, what is the probability that at least two of them does not think it very important for business students to take a business ethics course? [4]

3. A manufacturing process produces small bolts. 5 % of all bolts produced in this process are defective. What is the probability than in a sample of 40 randomly selected bolts, (i) exactly 5 will be defective? [4] (ii) at least 3 will be defective? [7]

4. When an assembly machine is properly calibrated approximately 2% of the finished products are defective. Periodically the quality control engineer randomly selects 20 products at random, and tests them. He will halt the production line to check (and reconfigure, if necessary) the calibration if any of the tested products are defective. Assuming that the machine is properly calibrated, what is the probability that production must be halted?

POISSON 1. An average of 6 students arrives randomly and independently at COSTAATT between 7:00 am and 7:15 am every morning. What is the probability that, i. there are 2 arrivals in that 15-minute period? [2] ii. at most 2 students arrive in that 15-minute period? [2] 2. A Statistics lecturer claims that there is an average of 10 interruptions during his 3-hour lecture sessions. What is the probability that in the next such session there will be? (i) more than 3 interruptions [4] (ii) either 12 or 13 interruptions [4] 3. On average, the operations manager at Courts Ltd found that there are 5.5 customers enter the store during the period 12:00 pm to 1:00pm. What is the probability that there are exactly 2 customers entering the store between 12:00 pm and 12:30pm? [6] 4. An office worker receives an average of 22.5 e-mail messages per day. If his working day lasts seven and a half hours, what is the probability that: (a) He receives no e-mails in an hour? (b) He receives one e-mail in an hour? (c) He receives two or fewer e-mails in an hour?

MIXED 1. (a) Cyber Electronics, a company that makes DVD players, rates customer satisfaction as a top priority. They guarantee a refund or a replacement for any DVD player that malfunctions within two years from the date of purchase. It is known from past data that 5% of the DVD players malfunction within a two year period. The company mails a package of 10 randomly selected DVD players to their retail outlet. In that package of 10 DVD players, find the probability that (i) exactly 2 will need to be replaced within two years. [3] (ii) 2 or more will need to be replaced within two years. [5] (b) Customers arrive randomly at the retail outlet of Cyber Electronics at an average of 3.4 per minute. Calculate the probability that (i) no customers arrive in any particular minute, [2] (ii) exactly one customer arrives in any particular minute [2] (iii)two or more customers arrive in any particular minute [3]

2. (a) The on-line access computer service industry is growing at an extraordinary rate. Current estimates suggest that, in a particular region of the country, only 30% of the home-based computers have access to online services. This number is expected to grow quickly over the next 5 years. Suppose 20 people with homebased computers were randomly and independently sampled. Using the formula for the appropriate distribution, find the probability (to 4 decimal places) that (i) exactly 10 of those sampled currently have access to on-line services. [4] (ii) fewer than 2 of those sampled currently have access to on-line services [4] (b) The Department of Commerce in a particular state in the US has determined that the mean number of small businesses that declare bankruptcy per month is 6.4. Using the formula for the appropriate distribution, find the probability (to 4 d.p.) that (i) exactly 2 bankruptcies occur next month. [3] (ii) more than 2 bankruptcies occur next month. [4] 3. (a) Suppose one in every four new clients approached by an insurance salesman purchases an insurance policy. If the salesman randomly approaches twelve new clients: (i) Find the probability that exactly two will buy a policy. (ii) Find the probability that at most two will buy a policy. [3] [4]

(b) On an average, six people per hour enter a furniture shop. Find the probability that in a half hour period: (i) One person will enter the store [3] (ii) More than three people will enter the shop. [5]

4. (a) A manager of a pharmacy has found that, on average, 8 customers enter the pharmacy in the hour before closing time. Find the probability that in the next hour before closing time no more than 2 customers enter the pharmacy. [5] (b) Consider that there is a 20% chance that a patient is allergic to aspirin. Assuming that the drug is administered to five patients, (i) Find the probability that all five patients are allergic to the drug [4] (ii) Find the probability that at least one of them is not allergic to the drug. [4]