Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

B.Tech Aerospace, EC & Engineering Physics, November 2021

MA 311 Probability, Statistics & Numerical Methods
Tutorial - III
1. A manufacturer of compact disc players uses a set of comprehensive tests to assess the electrical
function of its product. All compact disc players must pass all tests prior to being sold. A random
sample of 500 disc players resulted in 15 failing one or more tests. Find a 90% confidence interval
for the proportion of compact disc players from the population that passes all tests.
2. A geneticist is interested in the proportion of African males that have a certain minor blood
disorder. In a random sample of 100 African males, 24 are found to be afflicted.
(a) Compute a 99% confidence interval for the proportion of African males that have this blood
disorder.
(b) What can we assert with 99% confidence about the possible size of the error if we estimate
the proportion of African males with this blood disorder to be 0.24?
3. A study is to be made to estimate the percentage of citizens in a town who favour having their
water fluoridated. How large a sample is needed if one wishes to be at least 95% confident that
our estimate is within 1% of the true percentage?
4. What is the maximum error one can expect to make with probability 0.90 when using the mean
of a random sample of size n = 64 to estimate the mean of a population with σ 2 = 2.56?
5. In a study of automobile collision insurance costs, a random sample of 80 body repair costs for a
particular kind of damage had a mean of $472.36 and a S.D of $62.35. If x̄ = $472.36 is used as
a point estimate of the true average repair cost of this kind of damage, with what confidence can
one assert that the error does not exceed $10 (Ans: 84.7%).
6. If we want to determine the average mechanical aptitude of a large group of workers, how large
a random sample will we need to be able to assert with probability 0.95 that the sample mean
will not differ from the true mean by more than 3.0 points? Assume that it is known from past
experience that σ = 20.0.
7. The dean of a college wants to use the mean of a random sample to estimate the average amount
of time students take to get from one class to the next, and she wants to be able to assert with
99% confidence that the error is at most 0.25 minute. If it can be presumed from experience that
σ = 1.40 minutes, how large a sample will she have to take? (Ans: n = 208)
8. A random sample of 100 teachers in a large metropolitan area revealed a mean weekly salary of
$487 with a S.D of $48. With what degree of confidence can we assert that the average weekly
salary of all teachers in the metropolitan area is between $472 and $502? (Ans: 99.82%)
9. A random sample of 20 students obtained a mean of x̄ = 72 and a variance of s2 = 16 on a college
placement test in mathematics. Assuming the scores to be normally distributed, construct a 98%
confidence interval for σ 2 .
10. A machine is producing metal pieces that are cylindrical in shape. A sample of 9 pieces is taken
and the diameters are measured as 1.01,0.97,1.03,1.04,0.99,0.98,0.99,1.01, and 1.03 centimetres.
Find a 99% confidence interval for the mean diameter of pieces from this machine, assuming an
approximate normal distribution.