Statistics I

Bachelor in Information Management

Bachelor in Information Systems

Exercises
LU5: Specific Probability
Distributions

TEACHERS

Ana Cristina Costa

Email: ccosta@novaims.unl.pt
Leonor Fernandes
E-mail: mfernandes@novaims.unl.pt

February 2021
1. Identify the distribution of the random variables described in the following exercises:
a) LU3: exercise 3.a)

b) LU3: exercise 3.d)

c) LU3: exercise 4.a)b)

d) LU3: exercise 4.c)

e) LU3: exercise 4.d)

f) LU3: exercise 5.a)

g) LU3: exercise 5.b)

h) LU3: exercise 5.c)d)

i) LU3: exercise 6

j) LU3: exercise 7

k) LU3: exercise 8.a)

l) LU3: exercise 8.b)C)

m) LU3: exercise 9

n) LU3: exercise 10

o) LU3: exercise 11

p) LU3: exercise 14.b)

q) LU3: exercise 15

r) LU4: exercise 8

s) LU4: exercise 13

t) LU4: exercise 14.a)

u) LU4: exercise 14.c)d)

2. The number of particles emitted by a radioactive source in a period is a random variable

with Poisson distribution. The probability of not being emitted any particle is 1/3.
Calculate the probability that the radioactive source emits at least 2 particles in that
period.

3. The hotels “GH - Good Holidays” recorded the stay of more than 2 million guests last
year. The GH Paris website, which has an average of approximately seven visits per
minute, enables many GH hotels to attract guests.
a) Calculate the probability that there will be no visits to the website within one minute.

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 b) Calculate the probability that there will be two or more website visits within one
minute.

c) Calculate the probability that there will be at least one website visit within 30
seconds.

4. In a company’s call center, the number of phone calls follows a Poisson distribution
with an average rate of 2 calls per minute. What is the probability that the time between
two consecutive calls will be less than 1 minute? And more than a minute?

5. The duration of an electronic component has Exponential distribution with a mean value
of 8 hours. The quality control department of the factory that produces the electronic
component discards all that fail in the first three hours, and the remaining components
are sold.
a) Find the probability density function of the random variable representing the
duration of electronic components (in hours).

b) Calculate the probability that an electronic component will be sold.

6. Let X be a random variable with N(0, 1) distribution. Calculate:

a) P(X< 1.2)

b) P(X< –1.64)

c) P(1.2< X< 1.33)

d) P(–1.7 < X< –1)

e) P(X > 1.33)

f) P(X > –1)

g) P(–1.7< X < 1.2)

7. The weight of cement bags follows a Normal distribution with mean 20 kg and standard
deviation 0.25 kg. Find the probability that a cement bag randomly chosen will have a
weight:
a) Greater than 20 kg.

b) Less than 20 kg.

c) Between 19.8 and 20.2 kg.

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8. Let X be a random variable with N(130, 6) distribution. Calculate:
a) P(X > 142)

b) P(X< 118)

c) P(127 < X< 139)

d) P(X >  +2)

e) Find t such that P(| X–130| < 6t) = 0.95

9. Z has a standard normal distribution. Find the value of z1 in the following probabilities.
a) P(Z< z1) = 0.70

b) P(Z< z1) = 0.25

c) P(Z > z1) = 0.20

d) P(Z > z1) = 0.84

10.Let X be a random variable with Normal(,) distribution.

a) Given that the probability of X being less than 24 is equal to 1%, and the probability
of X being greater than 67 is equal to 45%, find the values of the parameters of the
distribution.

b) If = 3 and 2= 4, calculate P[–4 < X < –2].

11. Suppose a factory produces three types of electrical materials A, B, and C, whose sales
prices are 120€, 62.50€, 128€, respectively. The number of units weekly sold for each
type of material can be considered independent, and each of them follows a Normal
distribution with mean 190, 221, 225, and variance 2304, 4096, 3600, respectively.
What is the probability that the total amount of sales of all materials exceeds 70 000€
in one week?

12.A factory makes products with 3 pieces each. Suppose that the weights (in kg) of each
of the 3 pieces are independent random variables with distributions N(2.05, 0.03),
N(3.1, 0.04), and N(10.5, 0.12), respectively. Calculate the probability of the weight
of a product to be greater than 16 kg.

13. Let X1 and X2 be independent random variables with distribution N(, ). What is the
distribution of X1 – X2?

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14. Suppose X and Y are independent random variables with N(, 1) and N(0, 4)
distributions, respectively.
a) What is the value of  if P(X < 4) = 0.9788?

b) If = 1, calculate P(1< X < 2.44).

c) Complete the following statement: if =4, then the variable W=2(X–Y) follows a
_______________ distribution with parameter(s) equal to _______________ .

15. If X~2(n=6) find the value of x such that

a) P(X  x) = 0.5

b) P(X > x) = 0.2

16. If X~2(n=10) calculate:

a) P(X  13.442)

b) P(X > 3.94)

17.If X~t(n=15) find the value of x such that

a) P(X  x) = 0.95

b) P(X > x) = 0.4

c) P(X  x) = 0.975

d) P(X< x) = 0.3

18.Find the value of x such that:

a) P(X  x) = 0.99 when X~F(2, 10)

b) P(X > x) = 0.05 when X~F(5, 10)

19.Let X be a random variable with Binomial(n, p=1/3) distribution. Find the lowest value
of n such that P[X  1]  0.85.

20.When taking a certain medication for the treatment of depression, 20% of patients
have side effects during the first week of treatment. A random sample of 15 patients
was selected. Let X be the number of patients with side effects in that sample.
a) Identify the distribution of the random variable X.

b) On average, how many patients have side effects?

c) What is the probability that exactly 5 patients have side effects?

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 d) Calculate the probability of more than 2 patients having side effects.

e) Calculate the probability of at least 1 and less than 4 patients having side effects.

f) Considering a sample of 100 patients, use the Normal distribution to find the
approximate probability of

i. At least 15 patients having side effects.

ii. Between 16 and 45 (including) having side effects.

21. 20% of a company's staff hold a higher education degree. Find the probability that,
among 30 employees randomly chosen, there are between 3 and 5 (including)
employees with a higher education degree:
a) Using the Binomial distribution.

b) Using the Normal distribution.

c) Compare the results obtained in a) and in b).

22.A factory warrants that 98% of the batteries it produces remain in working condition
for 500 hours of service. What is the probability that 12 or more batteries do not meet
the manufacturer's warranty in a sample of 400 batteries?

23.In a production line, the probability that a piece will be defective is 0.0025. In a total
of 2000 pieces produced:
a) What is the mean and variance of the number of defective pieces?

b) What is the probability that the number of defective pieces does not exceed 6?

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SOLUTIONS

1. 3.

a) B(n=5, p=1/3) a) 0.0009

b) HG(N=12, m=4, n=5) b) 0.9927

c) B(n=5, p=0.2) c) 0.9698

d) B(n=10, p=0.2) 4. P(X<1) = 1–e–2; P(X>1) = e-2

5. b) 0.6873
e) G(p=0.2)
6.
f) B(n=50, p=0.03)
a) 0.8849
g) B(n=10, p=0.03)
b) 0.0505
h) G(p=0.97)
c) 0.0233
i) B(n=10, p=0.9)
d) 0.1141
j) HG(N=20, m=12, n=5)
e) 0.0918
k) B(n=5, p=0.1)
f) 0.8413
l) HG(N=100, m=10, n=5)
g) 0.8403
m) G(p=0.3)
7.
n) G(p) a) 0.5

o) B(n=10, p=0.2) b) 0.5

p) B(n=4, p=0.972) c) 0.5762

q) U(−1, 1) 8.

r) U(−1, 2) a) 0.0228

s) U(0, 3) b) 0.0228

t) U(a, b) c) 0.6247

u) U(0, 2) d) 0.0228

2. 2/3 – (1/3)Ln 3 e) 1.96

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9. 18.

a) 0.5244 a) 7.56
b) –0.6745 b) 3.33
c) 0.8416 19. 5

d) –0.9945 20.

10.
a) X~B(n=15, p=0.2)
a) =64.73; =17.48 b) 3
b) 0.383 c) 0.1031
11. 0.33
d) 0.602
12. 0.0036
e) 0.613
13. N(0, 2 ) f) i) Normal distribution: 0.91621; exact
14. value: 0.919556; ii) Normal
a) 1.97 distribution: 0.87076; exact value:
b) 0.4251 0.871494
c) W~N(8; 8.25) 21.

15. a) 0.383
a) 5.348 b) 0.36
b) 8.558 22. 0.106

16. 23.

a) 0.8 a) E(X) = 5; V(X) = 4.9875

b) 0.95 b) 0.7491
17.

a) 1.753
b) 0.258
c) –2.131
d) –0.536

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