BFC 34303 Civil Engineering Statistics

Semester II 2019/2020
Continuous Quality Improvement

CQI Exercise 1 (Chapters 1 and 2)

Q1 (a) State the difference between “descriptive statistics” and “inferential

statistics”.

(b) Calculate the mean, median, and standard deviation, and construct a stem-
and-leaf diagram for the following list of values:

3.5, 2.7, 5.4, 8.6, 4.3, 6.2, 9.9, 7.6

Q2 (a) Differentiate between “quantitative data” and “qualitative data”.

(b) The following data are green times (s) for intersections in Batu Pahat:

18, 34, 76, 29, 15, 41, 46, 25, 54, 38, 20, 32, 43, 22

Summarise the data in a box-and-whiskers plot and determine if there are

any outliers.

Q3 (a) It is known from past records that 8% of interlocking blocks are defective
in production. Determine

(i) the probability that any interlocking block is defective.

(ii) the probability that any interlocking block is acceptable (not
defective).
(iii) the number of acceptable interlocking blocks likely to be found in a
sample batch of 4500.

(b) A construction firm has bid on two different contracts. Let E1 be the event
that the bid on the first contract is successful, and E2 be the event that the
bid on the second contract is successful. Suppose that P(E1) = 0.4 and P(E2)
= 0.3. If E1and E2 are independent, find the probability that

(i) both bids are successful.

(ii) neither bid is successful.
(iii) at least one of the bids is successful.
Q4 (a) State the difference between a population and a sample.

(b) With suitable examples, explain how outliers might cause descriptive
statistics to be misleading.

(c) Calculate the mean, median, mode, and range for the following list of values:

8, 9, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12, 13

(d) 220 students were asked about the number of hours per week they spent
driving a car. With the information given in Table 1, calculate the mean,
variance and standard deviation of the hours spent driving a car by the 220
students.

Table 1: Number of hours per week spent driving a car

Hours spent driving a car Number of students

10 to 14 2
15 to 19 12
20 to 24 23
25 to 29 60
30 to 34 77
35 to 39 38
40 to 44 8

Q5 (a) The probabilities that a student will obtain grade A, B, C, D or E for their
Engineering Statistics course are 0.20, 0.45, 0.20, 0.10 and 0.05 respectively.

(i) Find the probability that a student will obtain either grade A or B.
(ii) A class has 14 male students and 21 female students. Calculate the
probability that a female student in that class will obtain grade C.

(b) Fahrin and Ghafar are two of several civil engineers employed by a
construction company. The probabilities of Fahrin and Ghafar being selected
to work on a housing development project are 0.60 and 0.55 respectively.
The company has just secured a new housing development project. Find the
probability that

(i) only one of them is selected.

(ii) at least one of them is selected.
 (c) Helena travels to work either by bus or train. The probability that she
chooses to travel by bus is 0.7. The probability that she is late for work if
she travels by bus is 0.3 while the probability that she is late for work if she
travels by train is 0.2. Given that Helena is not late for work, determine the
probability she had chosen to travel by train.

Q6 (a) Differentiate between “discreet data” and “continuous data”. Provide TWO
(2) examples for each type of data.

(b) The following is a set of rainfall data (mm) that was measured on Monday,
30 July 2018 at monitoring stations located in several wetlands across
Selangor.

103, 65, 250, 176, 305, 79, 115, 282, 144, 36

Calculate the median, mean and standard deviation.

(c) Table 2 shows the speed of vehicles recorded along a rural road segment
during the first 15-minute period of a spot speed study.

Table 2: Vehicle speed (km/hour)

45 78 105 76 49 54
95 72 56 50 38 63
68 45 95 67 52 47
80 64 73 108 95 51

(i) Construct a stem-and-leaf diagram to represent the data given in

Table 2.
(ii) Comment on the distribution of the data.
Answers

Q1 (a) Refer to notes

(b) Stem Leaf

2 1 7
3 5 Key: 2 | 1 means 2.1
4 3
5 4
6 2
7 6
8 6
9 9

Mean = 5.59, Median 5.4, Standard deviation = 7.66

Q2 (a) Refer to notes

(b) 76 is an outlier

LIF = -9.5 UIF = 74.5

| |
| 15 22 33 43
|76
| |
| |
| |
| |
|| | | | | | | | | | |
-10
| 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 | 80
| |
| |

Q3 (a) (i) 2/25 (ii) 23/25 (iii) 4140

(b) (i) 0.42 (ii) 0.58

Q4 (a) Refer to notes

(b) The existence of just one outlier can dramatically alter many of our descriptive
statistics.

For example, suppose that we roll a die 10 times and come up with
{3,2,5,4,3,6,1,2,4,2}. The mean is 3.20 and the standard deviation is 1.55

Suppose, though, that we accidentally typed in 66 instead of 6 in the data. The

mean is then 9.20 and the standard deviation is 19.99.
 (c) Mean = 10.5, Median 10.5, Mode = 10 and 11, Range = 13 – 8 = 5

(d) Mean = 29.8, Variance = 36.42, Standard deviation = 6.03

Q5 (a) (i) 0.65 (ii) 0.12

(b) (i) 0.49 (ii) 0.82

(c) 0.329

Q6 (a) Refer to notes

(b) Median = 129.5 mm, Mean = 155.5 mm, Standard deviation = 94.6 mm

(c) Stem Leaf

3 8
4 5 5 7 9 Key: 3 | 8 means 38 km/h
5 0 1 2 4 6
6 3 4 7 8
7 2 3 6 8
8 0
9 5 5 5
10 5 8

(d) The data is positively skewed or skewed to the right.