De La Salle University – Dasmariñas

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND COMPUTER STUDIES

MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS DEPARTMENT
City of Dasmariñas, Cavite

SMATH311LC - MANAGEMENT SCIENCE

1st Semester / Midterm Period / S.Y. 2020-2021

LABORATORY EXERCISE 2
PROBABILITY & PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

Score:
NAME: __________________________________ DATE: ____________________

COURSE/YEAR & SECTION: __________________ PROF.: ____________________

Read, understand and solve each item carefully. Use Microsoft Excel as a tool and properly label your answer. Submit
a softcopy of your answer following the format: surname_section_laboratory exercise2.

1. TP computer owners are very faithful. Despite reporting problems with their current systems, 91% of TP owners
said they would buy another computer from the company, based on the service they received. Suppose you
randomly select 3 current Dell computer users and ask them whether they would buy another TP computer system.

a. Find the probability distribution for x, the number of Dell users in the sample of three who would buy
another Dell computer.

b. Construct the probability histogram for p(x).

c. What is the probability that exactly one of the three would buy another Dell computer?

2. The increased number of small commuter planes in major airports has heightened concern over air safety. An
eastern airport has recorded a monthly average of 5 near-misses on landings and takeoffs in the past 5 years.

a. Construct the probability distribution of near-misses landings in the airport. (Note: probabilities should be
rounded-off to the nearest ten-thousandths.)

b. What is the probability that during a given month there are at most 2 near-misses.

3. A printer manufacturer obtained the following probabilities from a database of test results. Printer failures are
associated with three types of problems: hardware, software, and other (such as connectors) with probabilities of 0.1,
0.6, and 0.3, respectively. The probability of a printer failure given a hardware problem is 0.9, given a software problem
is 0.2, and given any other type of problem is 0.5. If a customer enters the manufacturer’s Web site to diagnose a
printer failure, what is the most likely cause of the problem?

4. In 2003, the average stock price for companies making up the S&P 500 was $30, and the standard deviation was
$8.20 (BusinessWeek, Special Annual Issue, Spring 2003). Assume the stock prices are normally distributed.

a. What is the probability that a company will have a stock price of at least $40?

b. What is the probability that a company will have a stock price no higher than $20?

c. How high does a stock price have to be to put a company in the top 10%?

5. Internet Magazine monitors Internet service providers (ISPs) and provides statistics on their performance. The
average time to download a web page for free ISPs is approximately 20 seconds for European web pages (Internet
Magazine, January 2000). Assume the time to download a web page follows an exponential distribution.

a. What is the probability that it will take less than 10 seconds to download a web page?

b. What is the probability that it will take more than 30 seconds to download a web page?

c. What is the probability that it will take between 10 and 30 seconds to download a web page?