Temasek JC 2009 JC 2 Mathematics H2 9740

J2 Revision Exercises: Sampling & Estimation (Set

A)
1 The publisher of a magazine that is sold at newsstands wants to investigate which section
of the magazine is most popular among the readers. Explain whether it is possible to
obtain a random sample of the magazines readership.
The publisher obtained a sample by inviting readers to fill in their favourite section in a
form printed in one issue of the magazine and to send it to the publisher. Postage is free
and a small token is given for readers who respond. State one reason why this method
may be unsatisfactory.
Explain how the publisher can take a uota sample of the magazines readers who
purchase the magazines from newsstands. !"##$%Prelim%&'S%P"%()
2 * country club has +### members of which $## are males and "## are females. Their
names are recorded in a computer system in alphabetical order. The committee of the
club wishes to find out the type of activities preferred by the members and conducts a
survey on +## members of the club.
(i) Explain how a systematic sampling method can be used to select these +## members.
(ii) ,ive one advantage and one disadvantage of this method.
(iii) Suggest a method of obtaining a more representative sample and describe how it may
be carried out. !"##$%Prelim%TP-.%"%(
3 There are ++ hospitals in Singapore that offer stomach banding surgery. To investigate the
effectiveness of stomach banding surgery in Singapore/ a postgraduate student decides to
conduct a survey with +## patients who had undergone stomach banding surgery at
0ational 1niversity 'ospital. Explain why this sample is biased.
2t is known that the number of patients who had undergone stomach banding surgery in
each hospital is different. &escribe how the postgraduate student should obtain a more
representative sample of +## patients in order to determine the effectiveness of stomach
banding surgery in Singapore.
!"##$%P-.%P")
4 The student population of "/3## in a 4unior college is made up of male and female
students who are either in -.+ or -." as follows5
-.+ Students -." Students
6ale 73# (3#
8emale 33# 33#
* sample of 3# students is to be taken from the population to investigate the number
of hours of sleep a student from this 4unior college has on average per night.
(a) State and describe in detail a suitable method of sampling.
(b) The students are now listed in alphabetical order and they are numbered from + to
"3## consecutively. * number between + and 3#/ inclusive/ is selected at random.
The corresponding student and every 3#
th
student thereafter are included in this
sample.
(i) 2dentify this method of sampling.
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Temasek JC 2009 JC 2 Mathematics H2 9740
(ii) ,ive an advantage of using the method of sampling you have described in (a)
rather than this method of sampling. !#7%Prelim%9-.%"%:)
2
Temasek JC 2009 JC 2 Mathematics H2 9740
5 *n employer has commissioned an opinion polling organisation to undertake a survey of
staff responses to the proposed changes in the pension scheme. The staff are categorised
as management/ professional and administrative/ and it is thought that there might be
considerable differences of opinion among the categories. There are (#/ +;# and <##
staff respectively in the categories. The budget for the survey allows for a sample of ;#
members of staff to be selected for in=depth interviews.
(i) State one disadvantage of selecting a simple random sample from all the staff.
(ii) &escribe an alternative sampling method which would be better in this case.
The opinion polling organisation needs to estimate the average salary of staff. They took
a sample of 3# people and found out that
(x 3000) =

1360 / x 3000 ( )
2

= 8, 687, 200 .
(iii) 8ind the unbiased estimates of the population mean and variance. >eave your
answers to " decimal places.
(iv) 8ind the probability that the mean salary of (# people taken at random is more than
?</###. !"##$%S*-.%P"%+#)
6 The mean time spent by a carpenter on making a certain model of chair is <.3 hours with
a standard deviation of #.7 hours. 'e receives an order of +## such chairs.
(i) @hat is the probability that the mean time he takes to make these +## chairs is
between <.; and <.7 hoursA
(ii) @hat is the probability that he takes more than <(3 hours to produce the +## chairsA
7 The life/ in hours/ of a randomly chosen light bulb has mean ++## and standard deviation
7#. 'ow large a sample is reuired such that the probability that the mean life in the
sample exceeds ++"# is not more than 3B A
!'-.%"##3P22%C";DmodifiedE)
8 The continuous random variables X and Y have respective means +.3 and ln " and
corresponding variances
+
+"
and
"
+
Dln "E
"

.
1se the .entral >imit Theorem to estimate the approximate probability that the sum of
3# independent observations of X is greater than the sum of +## independent
observations of Y.
State precisely where in your solution you have made use of the .entral >imit Theorem.
!0F-.%"##(P22%C<#E2T'E9DmodifiedE)
9 The weights of apples and pears at Gillingate 6arket are known to have means and
standard deviations as given in the table below
Mean(g) Standard deviation(g)
Apple +#7 3
Pear ++# $
8ind an approximate value for
PD E A B >
where A is the average weight of 73 apples and
B is the average weight of (: pears. !6-.%"##3P22%C"(DpartE)
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Temasek JC 2009 JC 2 Mathematics H2 9740
10 * certain type of plant is known to attract two species of caterpillars/ * and G. The
number of each type of caterpillar on the plant is independent of the other type and each
follows a Poisson distribution with mean " and < respectively.
(i) Show that the probability that a randomly chosen plant has more than the expected
number of caterpillars on it is #.<$;.
(ii) 8ind the largest number of plants that can be chosen at random if there is to be a
probability of at least #.+ that none of the plants has more than the expected
number of caterpillars on each of them.
(iii) 2n a random sample of $# plants/ calculate the probability that the average number
of type G caterpillars per plant is less than twice the average number of type *
caterpillars per plant.
11 &afydd lives in the >ake &istrict and offers bed and breakfast to visitors. *t breakfast/
visitors help themselves to orange 4uice. 'e observes that the total amount of orange
4uice reuired by visitors at each breakfast may be modelled by a normal distribution
with mean +;(# ml and standard deviation ;## ml.
(a) &afydd keeps the orange 4uice in a fridge in +### ml cartons.
8ind the probability that at a particular breakfast5
(i) one full carton of orange 4uice will be sufficient to meet the visitors
reuirementsH
(ii) two/ but not more than two/ full cartons of orange 4uice will be needed to meet
the visitors reuirements.
(b) The mean amount of orange 4uice reuired by visitors at the 7 breakfasts in a
particular week is denoted by
X
.
(i) State the distribution of
X
. *ssume that the reuirement for orange 4uice at
each breakfast is independent.
(ii) 8ind the value of
X
which is exceeded in +B of weeks.
(iii) 'ow many full cartons of orange 4uice must &afydd have in his fridge/ at the
beginning of a particular week/ to ensure that the probability of being able to
meet the visitors reuirements for that week/ without replenishing his supplies/
is at least #.::A
(c) &afydd also provides grapefruit 4uice at breakfast. 'e observes that at "$B of
breakfasts more than +### ml of grapefruit 4uice is reuired. The amount of
grapefruit 4uice reuired may be modelled by a normal distribution with mean

ml
and standard deviation <## ml. 8ind the value of

.
!*C*=6GS+%-un#3)
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Temasek JC 2009 JC 2 Mathematics H2 9740
12 *n aptitude test for deep=sea divers produces scores which are normally distributed on a
scale from # to +##. * random sample of +(# divers were assessed/ and each of their
individual test scores/ x/ was recorded. The results are summarized by
( )
"
:+"#/ <3773. x x x = =

(i) .alculate unbiased estimates of the population mean and variance.
(ii) *ssuming that the unbiased estimate of the population mean obtained above is
eual to the population mean/ find the value of c such that there is a probability of
#.#3 that a sample of +(# scores has a sample mean that differs from its mean score
by more than c.
(iii) .omment on the validity of the calculations if the scores had not been known to be
normally distributed. !#7%Prelim%9-.%"%++)
Answers to J2 Revision Exercises on Sampling & Estimation
(Set A)
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5