Engineering Mathematics 4 ——————— Tutorial 3 ————————————— Questions

Question 1
Consider the following probability distribution:

x 0 100 300
Pr(X = x) 0.2 0.75 0.05

(a) Calculate the expected value and the variance. (b) Derive the moment generating
function. (c) Use your answer to (b) to calculate the expected value and variance.

Question 2
You develop a random number generater which assigns a value to the random variable X
according to the following probability distribution:

x 0.0 0.5 1.0 2.0 3.0

Pr(X = x) 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.15 ?

(a) What is value the value of Pr(X = 3.0)? (b) Calculate E(X) and Sd(X). (c) You
produce a gambling game where the player wins (in euro) the value of X generated, e.g., if a
2.0 appears, A
C2 is won. How much should you charge for a play of this game so that that you
(the developer of the game) make a profit of A
C0.10 on average per game? (i.e., the player loses
C0.10 on average) (d) Using your answer to part (c), determine the probability that you
A
make a profit when somebody plays this game.

Question 3
You flip three coins. Let X = “the number of heads” and Y = “the number of unique faces”.
(a) What is the sample space for this experiment? (b) Using part (a), derive the probability
distribution for X and also the probability distribution for for Y . (c) Calculate E(X) and
Sd(X). (d) Calculate E(3Y ) and Sd(3Y ). (e) Derive the moment generating function for X
and use this to calculate E(X).

Question 4
Assume that the sales price of a product, P , depends on the quantity demanded, Q, as follows:
P = −2Q + 300. Assume that E(Q) = 80 and V ar(Q) = 100.
(a) Calculate the expected price and the corresponding standard deviation. (b) Assume that
it costs us A
C60 to produce one unit of this product plus a fixed cost of A
C1000 irrespective of how
many units we produce. Let C be the total cost of producing Q units. What is the expected
total cost and corresponding standard deviation? (c) Total revenue is price by quantity sold:
R = P Q. Express R in terms of Q only and, hence, find E(R). Hint: V ar(X) = E(X 2 ) − [E(X)2 ]
⇒ E(X 2 ) = V ar(X) + [E(X)]2 (d) What is the expected profit?

Question 5
Consider the probability density function f (x) = 23 x2 where X ∈ [−1, 1]
(a) Show that this is a valid density function. (b) Calculate E(X) and V ar(X).
Engineering Mathematics 4 ——————— Tutorial 3 ————————————— Questions

Question 6
Consider the probability density function f (x) = cx3 where X ∈ [0, 2]
(a) For this to be a valid density function, what is the value of c? (b) Calculate E(X) and
V ar(X). (c) Calculate Pr(X ∈ [1, 1.5]) and Pr(X = 1.8).

Question 7
Consider the probability density function f (x) = 12 ex where X ∈ [0, ln 3]
(a) Show that this is a valid density function. (b) Derive the moment generating function
and use this to calculate E(X). (c) Derive an expression for Pr(X > k), set this equal to
0.5 and solve for k. This is the median value of X, i.e., there is a 50-50 chance of being above
this value (or below it).