Probability Distributions - IB Questions

1) In a game a player rolls a biased four-faced die. The probability of each possible score is shown
below.

Score 1 2 3 4

1 2 1
Probability x
5 5 10

(a) Find the value of x.

(2)

(b) Find E(X).

(3)

(c) The die is rolled twice. Find the probability of obtaining two scores of 3.
(2)
(Total 7 marks)

2) The following table shows the probability distribution of a discrete random variable X.

x –1 0 2 3
2
P (X = x) 0.2 10k 0.4 3k

(a) Find the value of k.

(4)

(b) Find the expected value of X.

(3)
(Total 7 marks)
3) A discrete random variable X has a probability distribution as shown in the table below.

x 0 1 2 3
P(X = x) 0.1 a 0.3 b

(a) Find the value of a + b.

(2)

(b) Given that E(X) =1.5, find the value of a and of b.

(4)
(Total 6 marks)
HOW MUCH PROBABILITY DO YOU REMEMBER???

4a. [5 marks]

Jar A contains three red marbles and five green marbles. Two marbles are drawn from the jar, one after the
other, without replacement.

Find the probability that

(i) none of the marbles are green;

(ii) exactly one marble is green.

4b. [3 marks]

Find the expected number of green marbles drawn from the jar.
4c. [2 marks]

Jar B contains six red marbles and two green marbles. A fair six-sided die is tossed. If the score is ! or ! ,
a marble is drawn from jar A. Otherwise, a marble is drawn from jar B.

(i) Write down the probability that the marble is drawn from jar B.

(ii) Given that the marble was drawn from jar B, write down the probability that it is red.

4d. [6 marks]

Given that the marble is red, find the probability that it was drawn from jar A.