Probability Distributions

THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING :

A company hires management trainees for entry level sales positions. Past experience indicates that only 10% will still be
employed at the end of nine months. Assume the company recently hired six trainees.
1) What is the probability that three of the trainees will still be employed at the end of nine months?
A) 0.0146
B) 0.0415
C) 0.0012
D) 0.0446
2) What is the probability that at least two of the trainees will still be employed at the end of nine months?
A) 0.1143
B) 0.0984
C) 0.9841
D) 0.0159
3) What is the probability that none of the trainees will still be employed at the end of nine months?
A) 0.3771
B) 0.0000
C) 0.5314
D) 0.4686
THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING :
A basketball player makes 80 percent of his free throws during the regular season. Consider his next eight free throws.
4) What is the probability that he will make exactly six free throws?
A) 0.1468
B) 0.1678
C) 0.3355

D) 0.2936

5) What is the probability that he will make at least six free throws?
A) 0.1468
B) 0.3355
C) 0.2936

D) 0.7969

6) What is the probability that he will make between four and six (inclusive) free throws?
A) 0.1468
B) 0.6291
C) 0.4404

D) 0.4863

THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING :

A cereal manufacturer produces a cereal that claims to contain 16 ounces in each box. A sample of boxes results in the
following table.
Weight in Ounces
Probability

14
0.10

15
0.30

16
0.40

17
0.20

7) What is the mean weight of the sample of cereal boxes?

A) 15.7
B) 15.5

C) 16.5

D) 16.0

8) What is the standard deviation of the weight of cereal in the boxes?

A) 1.25
B) 0.81
C) 0.90

D) 1.19

THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING :

In a shipment of 18 trucks to a local truck dealer, there are four trucks that don't have air conditioning. Assume that you
select four trucks at random.
9) What is the probability that two of the four don't have air conditioning?
A) 0.121
B) 0.178
C) 0.145
10) What is the probability that two or fewer of the four don't have air conditioning?
A) 0.9242
B) 0.7727
C) 0.9814

D) 0.212

D) 0.8169

THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING :

Consider the following probability distribution function.
x
P(x)

0
0.07

1
0.19

2
0.23

3
0.17

4
0.16

5
0.14

6
0.04

11) What is P(X > 3)?

12) What is P(2 < X < 5)?
13) What is P(X 2)?
THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING :
A bank grants mortgages to 87% of all applicants. After the applicant gets approval, the bank sends an appraiser to evaluate
the value of the property. The bank pays an appraiser a salary of $2000 a month plus $200 for each appraisal. Assume the
bank gets 10 loan applications next month.
14) What is the variance of the amount of money the bank will have to pay its appraiser?
15) What is the expected value of the amount of money the bank will have to pay its appraiser?
THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
The amount of time you have to wait at a particular stoplight is uniformly distributed between zero and two minutes.
16) What is the probability that you have to wait more than 30 seconds for the stoplight?
A) 0.50
B) 0.75
C) 1.01

D) 0.25

17) What is the probability that you have to wait between 15 and 45 seconds for the stoplight?
A) 0.15
B) 0.45
C) 0.25
D) 0.35
18) Eighty percent of the time, the stoplight will change before you have to wait X seconds, what is the value of X?
A) 90 seconds
B) 30 seconds
C) 24 seconds
D) 96 seconds
19) Sixty percent of the time, the stoplight will change before you have to wait X seconds, what is the value of X?
A) 72 seconds
B) 60 seconds
C) 36 seconds
D) 48 seconds
THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
The length of time it takes to be seated at a local restaurant on Friday night is normally distributed with a mean of 15
minutes and a standard deviation of 4.75 minutes.
20) What is the probability that you have to wait more than 20 minutes to be seated?
A) 0.6761
B) 0.1469
C) 0.1761

D) 0.3531

21) What is the probability that you have to wait between 13 and 16 minutes to be seated?
A) 0.246
B) 0.083
C) 0.163

D) 0.663

THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

Let X be a continuous random variable with mean of 1200 and standard deviation of 250. Define the random variable Y as
follows: Y = 80 + 0.05X
22) What is the mean of Y?
A) 120

B) 330

C) 680

D) 140

23) What is the standard deviation of Y?

A) 12.5
B) 55.9

C) 92.5

D) 11.89

THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

Let the random variable Z follow a standard normal distribution.
24) What is P(Z > 0.29)?
25) What is P(Z > -0.52)?
26) What is P(-0.44 < Z < 1.2)?
THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
Let the random variable X follow a normal distribution with mean = 48 and variance 2 = 60.84.
27) Find the probability that X is greater than 36 and less than 60.
28) Find the probability that X is less than 52.
29) The probability is 0.2 that X is greater than what number?
30) The probability is approximately 0.05 that X is in the symmetric interval about the mean between which two
numbers?

Answer Key
Testname: UNTITLED1

1) A
2) A
3) C
4) D
5) D
6) D
7) A
8) C
9) B
10) C
11) 0.16 + 0.14 + 0.04 = 0.34
12) 0.17 + 0.16 = 0.33
13) 0.23 + 0.17 + 0.16 + 0.14 + 0.04 = 0.74
14) X = Number of appraisals out of 10 mortgage applications
2
Since n = 10 and P = 0.87, then X = nP = 8.7, and X = nP(1 - P) =1.131
Since Z = Amount paid to appraiser = 2000 + 200X, then
2
2
z = (200) 2 X = (40,000)(1.131) = 45,240
15) z = 2000 + 200 X = 2000 + 200(8.7) = 3,740
16) B
17) C
18) D
19) A
20) B
21) A
22) D
23) A
24) 0.3859
25) 0.6985
26) 0.5549
27)
P(36 < X < 60) = P(-1.54 < Z < 1.54) = 0.4382 + 0.4382 = 0.8764
28) P(X < 52) = P(Z < 0.51) = 0.195 + 0.50 = 0.695
29) P(X > a) = 0.20 P[Z > (a - 48) / 7.8] = 0.20 (a - 48) / 7.8 = 0.84 a = 54.552
30) P(a < X < b) = 0.05 P[(a - 48) / 7.8 < Z < (b - 48) / 7.8] = 0.05
(a - 48) / 7.8 = -0.06 and (b - 48) / 7.8 = 0.06
a = 47.532 and b = 48.468