INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NAGPUR

Course: Numerical Methods and Probability Theory (NMPT) - MAL 201

Session- July-Dec 2020
Assignment 1: Probability Theory

Qu 1: Suppose Ω = {0, 1,. . . ,15}, A = {0, 8}, B = {1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12}, C = {0, 4,9, 15}.
Determine A ∩ B, B ∩ C, A ∪ C, C \ A, Ω \ (B ∪ A ∪ C).

Qu 2: Now consider the three pairwise disjoint events E, F, G with Ω = E ∪F ∪ G and P(E)
= 0.2 and P(F) = 0.5. Calculate P( ̅ ), P(G), P(E ∩ G), P(E \ E), and P(E ∪ F).

Qu 3. A driving licence examination consists of two parts which are based on a theoretical
and a practical examination. Suppose 25% of people fail the practical examination, 15% of
people fail the theoretical examination, and 10% of people fail both the examinations. If a
person is randomly chosen, then what is the probability that this person

(a) Fails at least one of the examinations?

(b) Only fails the practical examination, but not the theoretical examination?
(c) Successfully passes both the tests?
(d) Fails any of the two examinations?

Qu 4. A new board game uses a twelve-sided die. Suppose the die is rolled once, what is the
probability of getting
(a) an even number?
(b) a number greater than 9?
(c) an even number greater than 9?
(d) an even number or a number greater than 9?

Qu 5. A football practice target is a portable wall with two holes (which are the target) in it
for training shots. Suppose there are two players A and B. The probabilities of hitting the
target by A and B are 0.4 and 0.5, respectively.
(a) What is the probability that at least one of the players succeeds with his shot?
(b) What is the probability that exactly one of the players hits the target?
(c) What is the probability that only B scores?

Qu 6: Classify the following random variable as discrete or continuous

X: The number of automobile accidents per year in Virginia
Y: The length of time to play 18 holes of golf.
N: The number of building permits issued each months in a certain city.
Q: The weight of grain produced per acre.

Qu 7: An overseas shipment of 5 foreign automobiles contains 2 that have slight paint

blemishes. If an agency receives 3 of these automobiles at random. List the elements of the
sample S, using the letters B and N for blemished and nonblemished, respectively. Then to
each sample point assign a value of the random variable X representing the number of
automobiles with paint blemishes purchased by the agency.
Qu 8: Let W be a random variable giving the number of heads minus the number of tails in
three tosses of a coin. List the elements of the sample space S for the three tosses of the coin
and to each sample point assign a value of .

Qu 9: Consider a random experiment of tossing a coin three times. Let X be the r.v. giving
the number of heads obtained. We assume that the tosses are independent and the probability
of a head is p.
a) What is the range of X ?
b) Find the probabilities P(X = 0), P(X = 1), P(X = 2), and P(X = 3).

Qu 10: Consider the experiment of throwing a dart onto a circular plate with unit radius. Let
X be the r.v. representing the distance of the point where the dart lands from the origin of the
plate. Assume that the dart always lands on the plate and that the dart is equally likely to
land anywhere on the plate.
a) What is the range of X?
b) Find (i) P(X < a) and (ii) P(a < X < b), where a < b <= 1.

Qu 11: An information source generates symbols at random from. a four-letter alphabet (a,
b, c, d} with probabilities P(a) = 1/2, P(b) = 1/4, and P(c) = P(d) = 1/8. A coding scheme
encodes these symbols into binary codes as follows:
a 0
b 10
c 110
d 111
Let X be the r.v. denoting the length of the code, that is, the number of binary symbols (bits).
a) What is the range of X?
b) Assuming that the generations of symbols are independent, find the probabilities
P(X = 1), P(X = 2), P(X = 3), and P(X > 3).

Qu 12: Let X be the r.v. defined in Question-3 above.

a) Sketch the cdf FX(x) of X and specify the type of X.
b) Find (i) P(X  1), (ii) P( 1< X  2), (iii) P(X > 1), and (iv) P(l  X  2).

Qu 13: Let X be a continuous r.v. X with pdf

f X (x) = kx if 0 < x < l,
= 0, otherwise
where k is a constant.
a) Determine the value of k and sketch f X (x).
b) Find and sketch the corresponding cdf FX (x).
c) Find P(1/4  X  2).

Qu 14: Consider a discrete r.v. X whose pmf is given by

pX (x) = 1/3 , if x = -1,0,1
= 0 , otherwise
Plot pX(x) and find the mean and variance of X.
Qu 15: Consider the following cumulative distribution function of a random variable X:
 Solution:

Qu 1:

Qu 2:

Qu 3: We know that the probability of failing the practical examination is P(P E) = 0.25, of failing the
theoretical examination is P(T E) = 0.15, and of failing both is P(P E ∩ T E) = 0.1.
Qu 4: The total number of possible simple events is | |=12. The number of favourable simple
events is

Qu 5:

Qu 6:
X: Discrete
Y: Continuous
N: Discrete
Q: Continuous

Qu 7: The set of the automobiles is {N1, N2, N3, B1, B2}

Therefore, all the elements of the sample space S, i.e all possible “threes” are:
 1. (N1,N2,N3) => X=0
2. (N1,N2,B1) => X=1
3. (N1,N2,B2) => X=1
4. (N1,N3,B1) => X=1
5. (N1,N3,B2) => X=1
6. (N2,N3,B1) => X=1
7. (N2,N3,B2) => X=1
8. (N1,B1,B2) => X=2
9. (N2,B1,B2) => X=2
10. (N3,B1,B2) => X=2

We found the values of the random variable X by counting the number of letters in each
element of the sample space.

Qu 8. Assume S sample space with a sequence of three letters, each of which will be either H
or T.
In the Kth toss, if the coin lands on the head, there will be a letter H on the kth position in the
letter sequence. If the coin lands on the tails, letter T will occupy kth
Position in the letter sequence, for k {1,2,3}
Therefore, elements of the sample space and their assigned values of the random variable W
are:
HHH=> W=3
HHT=> W=1
HTH=> W=1
THH=> W=1
HTT=> W= -1
THT=> W= -1
TTH=> W= -1
TTT=> W= -3

Ques-9: (a) The range of X is R_X = {0,1,2, 3}.

(b) If P(H) = p, then P(T) = 1-p . Since the tosses are independent, we have
P(X = 0) = (1-p)^3,
P(X = 1) = 3p (1-p)^2
P(X = 2) = 3 p^2 (1-p)
P(X = 3) = p^3

Ques-10: (a) The range of X is R_X = {x. : 0  x < 1}.

(b) (i) (X < a) denotes that the point is inside the circle of radius a. Since the dart is
equally likely to fall anywhere on the plate, we have P(X < a) = a^2
(ii) (a < X < b) denotes the event that the point is inside the annular ring with inner
radius a and outer radius b. Thus,
P(a < X < b) = b^2 - a^2

Ques-11: (a) The range of X is R_X = {1,2, 3}.

(b) P(X = 1) = P[{a}] = P(a) = 1/2
P(X = 2) = P[{b}] = P(b) = 1/4
P(X = 3) = P[{c, d}] = P(c) + P(d) = 1/4
P(X > 3) = 0
Ques-12: (a) FX(x) = P(X=x) = 0 if x <1;
= 1/2 if 1  x < 2;
= 3/4 if 2  x <3;
= 1 if x  3 .
X is a discrete r.v.
(b) P(X  1) =1/2 , (ii) P(1 < X  2) = 1/4 , (iii) P(X > 1) = 1/2 , and (iv) P(l  X  2) = 3/4 .

Ques-13: (a) k =2
(c) Prob.=15/16

Ques-14: Mean = 0, Variance = 2/3

Qu 15:

(b) For any continuous variable P(X = x0) = 0 and therefore P(X = 4) = 0. We
calculate P(X < 3) = P(X ≤ 3) - P(X = 3) = F(3) - 0 = - 49 + 6 - 3 = 0.75.
(c)

d. Var(X) = E(X2) - [E(X)]2