PROBABILITY & STATISTICS
aluminium washers. 3 washers are drawn at random from
1. Concrete blocks are tested and it is found that, on
average, 7% fail to meet the required specification. For a
batch of 9 blocks, determine the probabilities that (a) three
blocks and (b) less than four blocks will fail to meet the
specification
[(a) 0.0186 (b) 0.9976]
2. If the failure rate of the blocks in Problem 1 rises to
15%, find the probabilities that (a) no blocks and (b) more
than two blocks will fail to meet the specification in a
batch of 9 blocks
[(a) 0.2316 (b) 0.1408]
3. The average number of employees absent from a firm
each day is 4%. An office within the firm has seven
employees. Determine the probabilities that (a) no
employee and (b) three employees will be absent on a
particular day
[(a) 0.7514 (b) 0.0019]
4. A manufacturer estimates that 3% of his
output of a small item is defective. Find the probabilities
that in a sample of 10 items (a) less than two and (b) more
than two items will be defective
[(a) 0.9655 (b) 0.0028]
5. A production department has 35 similar milling
machines. The number of breakdowns on each machine
averages 0.06 per week. Determine the probabilities of
having (a) one, and (b) less than three machines breaking
down in any week.
[(a) 02572 (b) 0.6496]
6. The probability that an employee will go to hospital in a
certain period of time is 0.0015. Use a Poisson distribution
to determine the probability of more than two employees
going to hospital during this period of time if there are
2000 employees on the payroll
[0.5768]
7. When packaging a product, a manufacturer finds that
one packet in twenty is underweight. Determine the
probabilities that in a box of 72 packets (a) two and (b)
less than four will be underweight
[(a) 0.1771 (b) 0.5153]
8. A manufacturer estimates that 0.25% of his output of a
component are defective. The components are marketed in
packets of 200. Determine the probability of a packet
containing less than three defective components.
[0.9856]
A box contains 35 brass washers, 40 steel washers and 25
the box without replacement.
9. The probability that all three are steel washers is:
(a) 0.0611 (b) 1.200 (c) 0.0640 (d) 1.182
The probability that there are no aluminium washers is:
(a) 2.250 (b) 0.418 (c) 0.014 (d) 0.422
The probability that there are two brass washers and either
a steel or an aluminium washer is:
(a) 0.071 (b) 0.687 (c) 0.239 (d) 0.343
10. 2% of the components produced by a manufacturer are
defective. Using the Poisson distribution the percentage
probability that more than two will be defective in a
sample of 100 components is:
(a) 13.5% (b) 32.3% (c) 27.1% (d) 59.4%
11. The mean height of 500 people is 170cm and the
standard deviation is 9cm. Assuming the heights are
normally distributed, determine the number of people
likely to have heights between 150cm and 195cm.
12. A batch of 1500 lemonade bottles have an average
contents of 753ml and the standard deviation of the
contents is 1.8ml. If the volumes of the content are
normally distributed, find the number of bottles likely to
contain: (a) less than 750ml, (b) between 751 and 754ml,
(c) more than 757ml, and (d) between 750 and 751ml.
[(a) 71 (b) 868 (c) 20 (d) 129]
13. A component is classed as defective if it has a
diameter of less than 69mm. In a batch of 350
components, the mean diameter is 75mm and the standard
deviation is 2.8mm. Assuming the diameters are normally
distributed, determine how many are likely to be classed
as defective [6]
14. The masses of 800 people are normally distributed,
having a mean value of 64.7kg, and a standard deviation
of 5.4kg. Find how many people are likely to have masses
of less than 54.4kg [22]
15. 500 tins of paint have a mean content of 1010ml and
the standard deviation of the contents is 8.7ml. Assuming
the volumes of the contents are normally distributed,
calculate the number of tins likely to have contents whose
volumes are less than (a) 1025ml (b) 1000ml and (c)
995ml
[(a) 479 (b) 63 (c) 21]
16. For the 350 components in Problem 1, if those having
a diameter of more than 81.5mm are rejected, find, correct
to the nearest component, the number likely to be rejected
due to being oversized [4]