Statistics 101 LE 2 Review

Problem Solving

1. Consider the random experiment of tossing a fair die twice. Define D as the difference (first toss –
second toss) of the outcomes in the two rolls.
a) Specify the sample space of the random experiment.
b) Construct the PMF of D. (Hint: D has 11 possible values)
c) Use the PMF to determine the following.
i) P(D<-2)
ii) P(D≤1)
iii) P(D≥5)

2. A large industrial firm purchases several new word processors at the end of each year, the exact
number depending on the frequency of repairs in the previous year. Let X = number of word
processors purchased each year and its PMF is as follows.

𝒙 0 1 2 3
𝒑(𝒙) 1/10 3/10 2/5 1/5
a) Check that this is a valid PMF.
b) Determine the mean of X.
c) Determine E(X2)
d) Determine Var(X) = E(X-𝜇)2
e) Compute E(X2)-[E(X)]2 and compare this with your answer in d)

3. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a continuous random variable Y is as follows:

𝐹(𝑦) = 1 − 𝑒 −3𝑦 , 𝑦 > 0

Use the CDF to compute for the following probabilities:

a) P(Y ≤ 5)
b) P(Y > 0.4)
a) P(Y > -1)
b) P(0<Y≤0.5)
c) P(-3≤Y<15)

4. Suppose the probability that a certain archer will hit the target is 0.65. If 10 shots are fired
independently,
a) what is the probability that the target will be hit twice?
b) what is the probability that the target will be hit between 5 and 8 times?
c) what is the expected number of times the archer will hit the target?