Statistics 13A Summer Session II 2009

Sample Midterm 2

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1) For a randomly selected student in a particular high school, let Y denote the number of living grandparents of
the student. What are the possible values of the random variable Y?
A) 4 B) 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 C) 1, 2, 3, 4 D) 0, 1, 2 E) 1, 2

2) When two balanced dice are rolled, 36 equally likely outcomes are possible as shown below.
(1, 1) (1, 2) (1, 3) (1, 4) (1, 5) (1, 6)
(2, 1) (2, 2) (2, 3) (2, 4) (2, 5) (2, 6)
(3, 1) (3, 2) (3, 3) (3, 4) (3, 5) (3, 6)
(4, 1) (4, 2) (4, 3) (4, 4) (4, 5) (4, 6)
(5, 1) (5, 2) (5, 3) (5, 4) (5, 5) (5, 6)
(6, 1) (6, 2) (6, 3) (6, 4) (6, 5) (6, 6)
Let X denote the smaller of the two numbers. If both dice come up the same number, then X equals that
common value. Find the probability distribution of X. Leave your probabilities in fraction form.

A): B): C): D): E):

3) Find the mean of the binomial random variable. On a 10-question multiple choice test, each question has four
possible answers, one of which is correct. For students who guess at all answers, find the mean for the
random variable X, the number of correct answers.
A) 2.5 B) 3.3 C) 1.9 D) 7.5 E) 5

4) Find the standard deviation of the binomial random variable. A die is rolled 18 times and the number of twos
that come up is tallied. If this experiment is repeated many times, find the standard deviation for the random
variable X, the number of twos.
A) 2.12 B) 1.622 C) 1.537 D) 1.581 E) 1.587

5) A basketball player has made 70% of his foul shots during the season. If he shoots 3 foul shots in tonight's
game, what is the probability that he makes all of the shots?
A) 0.09 B) 0.686 C) 0.027 D) 0.21 E) 0.343

6) A bank's loan officer rates applicants for credit. The ratings are normally distributed with a mean of 200 and a
standard deviation of 50. If an applicant is randomly selected, find the probability of a rating that is between
170 and 220.
A) 0.6189 B) 0.1554 C) 0.0703 D) 0.2257 E) 0.3811
7) Which of the following is not true about the standard normal distribution?
A) About 68% of its observations fall between -1 and 1.
B) The total area under the standard normal curve is 1.
C) About 95% of its observations fall between -2 and 2.
D) The standard normal curve is symmetric about 0.
E) The area under the standard normal curve to the left of z = 0 is negative.

8) Find the z-score having area 0.86 to its right under the standard normal curve.
A) -1.08 B) 0.8051 C) 1.08 D) -0.5557 E) 0.5557

9) A candy company claims that its jelly bean mix contains 21% blue jelly beans. Suppose that the candies are
packaged at random in small bags containing about 400 jelly beans. Describe the sampling distribution
model of the proportion of blue jelly beans in a bag.
A) mean = 21%; standard error = 2.0%
B) There is not enough information to describe the distribution.
C) mean = 79%; standard error = 0.8%
D) mean = 21%; standard error = 0.8%
E) mean = 79%; standard error = 2.0%

10) Assume that the salaries of elementary school teachers in the United States are normally distributed with a
mean of $32,000 and a standard deviation of $3000. If 100 teachers are randomly selected, find the probability
that their mean salary is greater than $32,500.
A) 0.0950 B) 0.0475 C) 0.9525 D) 0.3312 E) 0.1312

11) When determining the sample size for estimating a population proportion for a given level of confidence and
a desired margin of error, the closer to 0.50 that p is estimated to be.
A) has an undeterminable effect on the sample size required.
B) the smaller the sample size required.
C) the larger the sample size required.
D) has no effect on the sample size required.
E) the farther from 0.50 that 1 - p is estimated to be.

12) The width of a confidence interval estimate for a proportion will be

A) narrower when the sample proportion is 0.10 than when the sample proportion is 0.45.
B) wider for 90% confidence than for 95% confidence.
C) narrowest when the sample proportion is 0.5.
D) narrower for a sample size of 50 than for a sample size of 100.
E) wider when the sample proportion is 0.95 than when the sample proportion is 0.55.

13) In monitoring lead in the air after an explosion at a battery factory, it is found that measured the amounts of
lead (in ug/m3) in a 6 days period had a standard error of 1.91. Find the margin of error that corresponds to a
95% confidence interval.
A) 95 B) 1.91 C) 3.74 D) 5.65 E) None of the above

14) A 90% confidence interval for the mean percentage of airline reservations being canceled on the day of the
flight is (1.3%, 5.1%). What is the point estimate of the mean percentage of reservations that are canceled on
the day of the flight?
A) 1.90% B) 3.20% C) 2.55% D) 5.10% E) 3.80%
15) In a poll of 390 voters in a certain city, 77% said that they backed a bill which would limit growth and
development in their city. The margin of error in the poll was reported as 5 percentage points (with a 95%
degree of confidence). Which statement is correct?
A) There is not enough information to determine whether the margin of error is consistent with the sample size.

B) The reported margin of error is consistent with the sample size.

C) The sample size is too large to achieve the stated margin of error.
D) The stated margin of error could be achieved with a smaller sample size.
E) The sample size is too small to achieve the stated margin of error.

16) Using t-tables, report the t-score for the 99% confidence interval with df = 24.
A) 2.807 B) 2.492 C) 1.711 D) 2.797 E) 2.779

17) In a survey of 3200 T.V. viewers, 20% said they watch network news programs. Find standard error for the
sample proportion.
A) 0.0071 B) 0.0865 C) 0.0721 D) 0.0142 E) 0.0649

18) Of 369 randomly selected medical students, 23 said that they planned to work in a rural community.
Construct a 95% confidence interval for the percentage of all medical students who plan to work in a rural
community.
A) (3.77%, 9.47%) B) (3.30%, 9.17%)
C) (3.77%, 8.70%) D) (2.99%, 9.47%) E) (4.16%, 8.30%)

19) How much sugar do reduced sugar cookies typically have? You take a random sample of 51 reduced-sugar
cookies and test them in a lab, finding a mean sugar content of 3.2 grams and a standard deviation of 1.1
grams of sugar. Create a 99% confidence interval for the mean grams of sugar.
A) (3.1422, 3.2577) B) (2.8032, 3.5968)
C) (2.100, 4.300) D) (2.7875, 3.6125) E) (2.7810, 3.6169)

20) Analysis of a random sample of 250 Virginia nurses produced a 95% confidence interval for the mean annual
salary of
A) If we took many random samples of Virginia nurses, about 95% of them would produce this confidence
interval.
B) About 95% of Virginia nurses earn between $42,838 and $49,691.
C) About 95% of the nurses surveyed earn between $42,838 and $49,691.
D) 95% of all nurses earn between $42,838 and $49,691.
E) We are 95% confident that the interval from $42,838 to $49,691 contains the true mean salary of all Virginia
nurses.
TRUE/FALSE. Mark ‘A’ if the statement is True and 'B' if the statement is False on your scantron.

21) X ~ Binomial(4, 0.25), then P(X = 3) = 0.0469.

22) Some experts estimate that the length of time people live in a house has a mean of 7.2 years and a standard
deviation of 2.4 years. You could estimate the probability that 100 people selected at random had lived in
their houses for an average of 8 years or more, but you could not estimate the probability that an individual
had done so because the Central Limit Theorem says is approximately Normal for large sample sizes, but
not for samples of size 1 (individuals).

23) The following is a property of a discrete probability distribution: The interval containing all possible values
has probability equal to 1, so the total area under the curve equals 1.

24) Random variable is a numerical measurement of the outcome of a random phenomenon.

25) The practical implication of the effect of sample size on the standard error is: the larger the sample size, the
smaller the standard error and thus, the closer the sample mean tends to fall to the population mean.

26) The two properties of a good estimator are 1) unbiased and 2) small standard error.

27) The population proportion must lie within the range of values defined by the corresponding confidence-
interval estimate, regardless of the level of confidence achieved.

28) The following is true about t-distribution: It is used to construct confidence intervals for the population mean
when the population standard deviation is known.

29) Suppose you have obtained a 95% confidence interval for μ. The relationship between precision and
confidence level is: Decreasing the confidence level to 90% will result in greater precision.

30) You wish to estimate the mean weight of machine components of a certain type and you require a 92% degree
of confidence that the sample mean will be in error by no more than A pilot study showed that the
population standard deviation is estimated to be The sample size required is 172.
SOLUTIONS to Sample Midterm 2

1) B
2) E
3) A
4) D
5) E
6) E
7) E
8) A
9) A
10) B
11) C
12) A
13) C
14) B
15) D
16) D
17) A
18) C
19) B (using the Z-interval for a mean)
20) E
21) TRUE
22) TRUE
23) FALSE
24) TRUE
25) TRUE
26) TRUE
27) FALSE
28) FALSE
29) TRUE
30) FALSE