Economics 41 - Midterm Examination Red Version

Instructions:

• Mark your answers on the Scantron Form 882-E form which you brought. Use pencils
and properly erase any changes to your answer.

• Solve every question, and fill out only one answer - otherwise you will get no point for
the question.

• There are two versions of the exam, red and blue. Clearly indicate the version of the
exam on the scantron form.

• If a question is wrong or if there is no correct answer, everybody will get the full credit
for the question.

• You are allowed to bring a letter sized cheat sheet and you may write on both sides. You
can and should bring a calculator to the exam, but no device that can store pdf-files (e.g.,
no smart phone or iPad) .

1. Suppose that X has pmf f (x) = 1/3, x = 2, 3, 4. Compute E [X (3 − X)].

(a) 1.5
(b) − 32
(c) @− 23
(d) 3

2. Let the random variable X have the pmf


0.4 x = 0
f (x) = c
x
x = 1, 2

for some c. What is E [X]?

(a) @.8
(b) .4
(c) .2
(d) f (x) cannot be a valid PDF for any c, so the question itself is wrong.
X−1
3. Let X have mean 1, and variance 8. What is the variance of Y = 2
?

1
 (a) 0
(b) 1
(c) @2
1
(d) 2

4. Suppose that X is b (10, p) and that its variance is 2.1 What is p?

(a) 0.7
(b) 0.21
(c) 0.12
(d) @ Either 0.3 or 0.7

5. Let X have the pmf

 x  20−x
20! 2 1
f (x) = , x = 0, 1, 2, . . . , 20
x! (20 − x)! 3 3

What is the variance of X?

(a) 44. 444

(b) 6. 666 7
(c) @4. 444 4
(d) 1. 490 7

6. It is claimed that 20% of the people in a particular city can wiggle their ears. Suppose
that four people are selected at random. Let X equal to the number of people among
these four who can wiggle their ears. Find P (X ≤ 1).

(a) 0.262 14
(b) @0.8192
(c) 0.655 36
(d) 0.979 80

7. According to a poll, 60% of Americans believe in extraterrestrial life. Let X denote the
number of people who believe in extraterrestrial life in a sample of 200 Americans. What
is the variance of X?

(a) 6
(b) 36

2
 (c) 12
(d) @48

8. Suppose that X has a Poisson distribution with mean equal to 3. What is its variance?
√
(a) 3
(b) 9
(c) @3
(d) 4

9. Suppose that X ∼ b (n, p) and Y ∼ b (m, p). If the mean of X is three times as large as
the mean of Y , what can be said about n and m?

(a) n = 9m
(b) @n = 3m
(c) m = 3n
(d) m = 9n

10. Suppose that X has a Poisson distribution with mean equal to 2. What is P (X = 0)?

(a) @0.135 34
(b) 0.367 88
(c) 0.049 79
(d) 0.183 94

11. Let the random variables X1 and X2 have parameters µ1 = 1, µ2 = 3, σ12 = 4, σ22 = 9,
and Cov(X1 , X2 ) = 5, respectively. What is the variance of Y = 3X1 − 2X2 ?

(a) −3
(b) @12
(c) 42
(d) 72

12. Let X1 and X2 be independent random variables with respective variances σ12 = k, and
σ22 = 2. Given that the variance of Y = 2X2 − X1 is 20, find k.

(a) −12
(b) @12

3
 (c) 6
(d) Without the PDF’s of X1 and X2 , it is impossible to solve the question.

13. Suppose that X1 has the pmf

2x e−2
f1 (x) = , x = 0, 1, 2, . . .
x!
Also suppose that X2 has the pmf
4x e−4
f2 (x) = , x = 0, 1, 2, . . .
x!
Finally suppose that X1 and X2 are independent. What is the variance of Y = 2X1 −3X2 ?

(a) 5
(b) f1 (x) cannot be a valid PDF, so the question itself is wrong.
(c) f2 (x) cannot be a valid PDF, so the question itself is wrong.
(d) @44

14. Let the random variables X1 and X2 have parameters µ1 = 1, µ2 = 3, σ12 = 4, σ22 = 9,
and Cov(X1 , X2 ) = 5, respectively. Define Y = 3X1 − 2X2 . What is E [Y 2 ]?

(a) 81
(b) 72
(c) @21
(d) The answer cannot be deduced from the information given.

15. Suppose that X1 has the pmf

3x e−3
f1 (x) = , x = 0, 1, 2, . . .
x!
Also suppose that X2 has the pmf
13x e−13
f2 (x) = , x = 0, 1, 2, . . .
x!
Finally suppose that X1 and X2 are independent. What is the mean of Y = 2X1 − 3X2 ?

(a) @−33
(b) 33
(c) f1 (x) cannot be a valid PDF, so the question itself is wrong.
(d) 3

4
16. Suppose Xi distributed N (3, 9) for i = 1, . . . , 9, and the Xi are mutually independent.
What’s the distribution of x̄ = 91 Xi ?
P

(a) @N (3, 1)
(b) N (0, 3)
(c) N (0, .333)
(d) N (3, 3)

17. Suppose X is distributed N (3, 4). What is P (X ∈ [2, 2.5])?

Hint: Φ(0) = 0.5, Φ(0.25) = 0.60, Φ(0.5) = 0.69, Φ(0.75) = 0.77, Φ(1) = 0.84

(a) 0.19
(b) @0.09
(c) 0.84
(d) 0.17

18. A fair coin is tossed three times, and the sequence of heads and tails is observed. Let

A = {at most one tail}

B = {heads on the second toss}

Find P (A ∩ B).
1
(a) 3
5
(b) 8

(c) @ 38
(d) 0.75

19. If P (A) = 0.3, P (B) = 0.6, and P (A ∩ B) = 0.2, find P (A ∪ B).

(a) @0.7
(b) 0.2
(c) 0.68
(d) 0.3

20. If P (A) = 0.3, P (B) = 0.4, and P (A ∩ B) = 0.1, find P (A ∩ B 0 ).

(a) 0.1
(b) 0.3

5
 (c) 0.9
(d) @0.2

21. A fair coin is tossed three times, and the sequence of heads and tails is observed. Let

A = {at most one tail}

B = {heads on the second toss}

Are A and B independent of each other?

(a) They are independent of each other.

(b) Neither is correct.
(c) The answer cannot be drawn from the information given.
(d) @They are not independent of each other.

22. Suppose that P (A) = 0.2, P (B) = 0.5, and P (A ∪ B) = 0.6. Are A and B independent
of each other?

(a) The answer cannot be drawn from the information given.

(b) @They are independent of each other.
(c) They are not independent of each other.
(d) Neither is correct.

23. A burglar is trying to open a safe. The correct combination for the safe is a four-digit
number, d1 d2 d3 d4 , where di i = 1, 2, 3, 4 is selected from 1,2,3,4. How many different
combinations are possible?

(a) @256
(b) 512
(c) 16
(d) 24

24. How many different signals can be made using six flags of different colors on a vertical
flagpole if exactly three flags are used for each signal?

(a) 10
(b) 60
(c) @120
(d) 125

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25. There are five presidential candidates. In how many different ways can the five candidates
be lined up?

(a) 30
(b) 5
(c) @120
(d) 25

26. There are 5 items which you want to take on a camping trip, but your backpack would
only fit 2 of them. How many different combinations of 2 items out of 5 are possible?

(a) 15
(b) 30
(c) 25
(d) @10

27. A coin is flipped 8 times and the sequence of heads and tails is observed. What is the
number of possible 8-tuplets that results in four heads and four tails?

(a) 3024
(b) 32
(c) 4096
(d) @70

28. Two cards are drawn successively and without replacement from an ordinary deck of 52
playing cards. Compute the probability of drawing two Queens.

1
(a) 13
1
(b) 169
13
(c) 204
1
(d) @ 221

29. Two cards are drawn successively and without replacement from an ordinary deck of 52
playing cards. Compute the probability of drawing a Queen on the first draw, and a King
on the second draw.

2
(a) 13
1
(b) 16

7
 4
(c) @ 663
1
(d) 169

30. A grade school boy has five blue and three white marbles in his left pocket, and three blue
and five white marbles in his right pocket. If he transfers one marble at random from his
left to his right pocket, what is the probability of his then drawing a white marble from
his right pocket?
29
(a) 72
3
(b) 8
5
(c) 8

(d) @ 43
72

31. Suppose that P (A) = 0.4, P (B) = 0.5, and P (A ∩ B) = 0.1. What is P (A| B)?

(a) @0.2
(b) 0.25
(c) 0.3
(d) 0.5

32. Suppose that P (A) = 0.2, P (B) = 0.4, and P (A ∪ B) = 0.5. What is P (A| B)?

(a) 0.125
(b) @0.25
(c) 0.7
(d) 0.5

33. Let A and B be independent events with P (A) = 0.5 and P (B) = 0.3. What is
P (A ∪ B)?

(a) 0.15
(b) @0.65
(c) 0.8
(d) 0.9

34. Let A and B be independent events with P (A) = 0.5 and P (B) = 0.3. What is
P (A0 ∪ B 0 )?

(a) 0.2

8
 (b) @0.85
(c) 0.75
(d) 0.7

35. A fair six-sided die is rolled five independent times. Let Ai denote the event that a 6 is
observed on the ith roll. What is the probability of observing at least one 6?

(a) @ 4651
7776
3125
(b) 7776
3125
(c) 15 552
625
(d) 1296

36. An urn contains four balls numbered 1,2,3, and 4. One ball is to be drawn at random
from the urn. Let

A = {1, 2}
B = {2, 3}
C = {1, 4}

Are they mutually independent?

(a) They are pairwise independent, and also mutually independent.

(b) They are pairwise independent, but not mutually independent.
(c) They are not pairwise independent, but mutually independent.
(d) @They are neither pairwise independent, nor mutually independent.

37. Die A has orange on one face and blue on five faces. Die B has orange on two faces
and blue on four faces. Both are fair. If the two dice are rolled, find theprobability that
exactly one of them comes up orange.

(a) 1
7
(b) @ 18
4
(c) 9
11
(d) 18

38. Find the mean of the following discrete distribution:

1
f (x) = , x = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
5

9
 (a) @3
(b) 5
(c) 1/3
(d) 15

39. Find the variance of the following discrete distribution:

1
f (x) = , x = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
5
(a) 1.414
(b) 4
(c) 25
(d) @2

40. Suppose the age distribution in a classroom is given by the p.m.f.

1 2 3
f (18) = , f (19) = , f (20) =
6 6 6
What is the mean age in this classroom?

(a) @19.333
(b) 19.2
(c) 19
(d) 1.414

41. Suppose that a discrete distribution has the following pmf:

f (x) = c x2 + 1 ,


x = −3, 0, 3,

What is c?

1
(a) @ 21
5
(b) 21
21
(c) 5

(d) 5

10
42. A card is drawn at random from an ordinary deck of cards. Define

X = 4 if an ace is drawn
X = 3 if a king is drawn
X = 2 if a queen is drawn
X = 1 if a jack is drawn
X = 0 otherwise

What is the variance of X?

(a) @1. 716 0

(b) 1. 310 0
(c) 1. 769 2
(d) 4. 846 2

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