Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences Devore 8th Edition Test Bank

Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the

Sciences Devore 8th Edition Test Bank

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Chapter 6 – Point Estimation

COMPLETION

1. The objective of __________ is to select a single number such as , based on sample data, that represents
a sensible value (good guess) for the true value of the population parameter, such as .

ANS: point estimation

PTS: 1

2. Given four observed values: would result in a point estimate for

that is equal to __________.

ANS: 5

PTS: 1

3. An estimator that has the properties of __________ and __________ will often be regarded as an accurate
estimator.

ANS: unbiasedness, minimum variance

PTS: 1

4. A point estimator is said to be an __________ estimator of if for every possible value of .

ANS: unbiased

PTS: 1

5. The sample median and any trimmed mean are unbiased estimators of the population mean if the random
sample from a population that is __________ and __________.

ANS: continuous, symmetric

PTS: 1

6. Among all estimators of parameter that are unbiased, choose the one that has minimum variance. The
resulting is called the __________ of .

ANS: minimum variance unbiased estimator (MVUE)

PTS: 1

7. The standard error of an estimator is the __________ of .

ANS: standard deviation

PTS: 1
 8. In your text, two important methods were discussed for obtaining point estimates: the method of __________
and the method of __________.

ANS: moments, maximum likelihood

PTS: 1

9. Let be a random sample from a probability mass function or probability density function f(x). For
k = 1,2,3,……, the kth population moment is denoted by __________, while the kth sample moment is
__________.

ANS:

PTS: 1

10. Let be a random sample of size n from an exponential distribution with parameter . The
moment estimator of = __________.

ANS:

PTS: 1

11. Let be the maximum likelihood estimates (mle’s) of the parameters . Then the
mle of any function h( ) of these parameters is the function of the mle’s. This
result is known as the __________ principle.

ANS: invariance

PTS: 1

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Which of the following statements are true?

a. A point estimate of a population parameter is a single number that can be regarded as a sensible
value of .
b. A point estimate of a population parameter is obtained by selecting a suitable statistic and
computing its value from the given sample data. The selected statistic is called the point estimator
of .
c. The sample mean is a point estimator of the population mean .
d. The sample variance is a point estimator of the population variance .
e. All of the above statements are true.
ANS: E PTS: 1

2. Which of the following statements are not true?

a. The symbol is customarily used to denote the estimator of parameter and the point estimate
resulting from a given sample.
b. The equality is read as “the point estimator of
c. The difference between and the parameter is referred to as error of estimation.
d. None of the above statements is true.
 ANS: B PTS: 1

3. Which of the following statements are not always true?

a. A point estimator is said to be an unbiased estimator of parameter if for every
possible value of .
b. If the estimator is not unbiased of parameter , the difference is called the bias of
.
c. A point estimator is unbiased if its probability sampling distribution is always “centered” at the
true value of the parameter , where “centered” here means that the median of the distribution of
.
d. All of the above statements are true.
ANS: C PTS: 1

4. Which of the following statements are not always true?

a. It is necessary to know the true value of the parameter to determine whether the estimator is
unbiased.
b. When X is a binomial random variable with parameters n and p, the sample proportion
is an unbiased estimator of p.
c. When choosing among several different estimators of parameter , select one that is unbiased.
d. All of the above statements are not always true.
ANS: A PTS: 1

5. Which of the following statements are true if is a random sample from a distribution with
mean ?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e. All of the above statements are true provided that the sample size n > 30.
ANS: D PTS: 1

6. Which of the following statements are true if is a random sample from a distribution with
mean ?
a. The sample mean is always an unbiased estimator of .
b. The sample mean is an unbiased estimator of if the distribution is continuous and
symmetric.
c. Any trimmed mean is an unbiased estimator of if the distribution is continuous and symmetric.
d. None of the above statements are true.
e. All of the above statements are true.
ANS: E PTS: 1

7. Which of the following statements are not true?

a. Maximum likelihood estimators are generally preferable to moment estimators because of certain
efficiency properties.
b. Maximum likelihood estimators often require significantly more computation than do moment
estimators.
 c. The definition of unbiasedness in general indicates how unbiased estimators can be derived.
d. None of the above statements are true.
e. All of the above statements are true
ANS: C PTS: 1

8. Which of the following statements are correct?

a. The first population moment is , while the first sample moment is .
b. The moment estimators are obtained by equating the first m sample moments to the
corresponding first m population moments, and solving for the unknown parameters .
c. The method of maximum likelihood was first introduced by R.A. Fisher, a geneticist and
statistician, in the 1920’s.
d. All of the above statements are true.
e. Only (A) and (B) are true.
ANS: D PTS: 1

9. Which of the following statements are not true?

a. Maximizing the likelihood function gives the parameter values for which the observed sample is
most likely to have been generated---that is, the parameter values that “agree most likely” with the
observed data.
b. Different principles of estimation may yield different estimators of the unknown parameters.
c. The maximum likelihood estimator of the population standard deviation is the sample standard
deviation S.
d. None of the above statements are true.
ANS: C PTS: 1

10. Which of the following statements are true?

a. Maximizing the likelihood estimation is the most widely used estimation technique among
statisticians.
b. Under very general conditions on the joint distribution of the sample, when the sample size n is
large, the maximum likelihood estimator of any parameter is approximately unbiased; that is,
.
c. Under very general conditions on the joint distribution of the sample, when the sample size n is
large, the maximum likelihood estimator of any parameter has variance, is nearly as small as
small as can be achieved by any estimator.
d. In recent years, statisticians have proposed an estimator, called an M-estimator, which is based on a
generalization of maximum likelihood estimation.
e. All of the above are true statements.
ANS: E PTS: 1

11. The accompanying data describe flexural strength (Mpa) for concrete beams of a certain type was introduced in
Example 1.2.

9.2 9.7 8.8 10.7 8.4 8.7 10.7

6.9 8.2 8.3 7.3 9.1 7.8 8.0
8.6 7.8 7.5 8.0 7.3 8.9 10.0
8.8 8.7 12.6 12.3 12.8 11.7
a. Calculate a point estimate of the mean value of strength for the conceptual population of all beams
manufactured in this fashion, and state which estimator you used. Hint:
b. Calculate a point estimate of the strength value that separates the weakest 50% of all such beams
from the strongest 50%, and state which estimator you used.
c. Calculate and interpret a point estimate of the population standard deviation Which estimator
 did you use? Hint:
d. Calculate a point estimate of the proportion of all such beams whose flexural strength exceeds 11
Mpa. Hint: Think of an observation as a “success” if it exceeds 11.
e. Calculate a point estimate of the population coefficient of variation and state which estimator
you used.

ANS: A
. We use the sample mean,

b. We use the sample median, (the middle observation when arranged in ascending order).

c. We use the sample standard deviation,

d. With “success” = observation greater than 11, s = # of successes = 4, and

e. We use the sample (std dev) /(mean), or

PTS: 1

ESSAY

1. Answer the following questions.

a. A random sample of 10 houses in Big Rapids, each of which is heated with natural gas, is
selected and the amount of gas (therms) used during the month of January is determined for each
house. The resulting observations are 108, 161, 123, 94, 130, 152, 127, 114, 143, 104. Let
denote the average gas usage during January by all houses in this area. Compute a point estimate
of .
b. Suppose there are 10,000 houses in Big Rapids that use natural gas for heating. Let denote the
total amount of gas used by all of these houses during January. Estimate using the data of part
(a0. What estimator did you use in computing your estimate?
c. Use the data in part (a) to estimate p, the proportion of all houses that used at least 105 therms.
d. Give a point estimate of the population median usage (the middle value in the population of all
houses) based on the sample of part (a). What estimator did you use?

ANS:

a.

b.
c. 8 of 10 houses in the sample used at least 100 therms (the “successes”), so

d. The ordered sample values are 94, 104, 108, 114, 123, 127, 130, 143, 152, 161, from which the two
middle values are 123 and 127, so

PTS: 1
2. Consider a random sample from the pdf

where (this distribution arises in particle physics). Show that is an unbiased

estimator of [ Hint: First determine

ANS:

PTS: 1

3. Let represent a random sample from a Rayleigh distribution with pdf

a. It can be shown that Use this fact to construct an unbiased estimator of based
on (and use rules of expected value to show that it is unbiased).
b. Estimate from the following observations on vibratory stress of a turbine blade under
specified conditions:

17.08 10.43 4.79 6.86 13.88

14.43 20.07 9.60 6.71 11.15

ANS:

a. Then

is an unbiased

estimator for .
b.

PTS: 1

4. A random sample of bike helmets manufactured by a certain company is selected. Let = the number
among the that are flawed and let = (flawed). Assume that only is observed, rather than the
sequence of

a. Derive the maximum likelihood estimator of . If = 25 and =5, what is the estimate?
b. Is the estimator of part (a) unbiased?
c. If = 25 and =5, what is the mle of the probability that none of the next five helmets
examined is flawed?
 ANS:
a. We wish to take the derivative of set it equal to zero and solve for

setting this equal to zero and solving for

yields . For n = 25 and x = 5,

b. is an unbiased estimator of .

c.

PTS: 1

5. Let denote the proportion of allotted time that a randomly selected student spends working on a certain
aptitude test. Suppose the pdf of is

where > -1. A random sample of ten students yields data

a. Use the method of moments to obtain an estimator of and then compute the estimate for this data.
b. Obtain the maximum likelihood estimator of and then compute the estimate for the given data.

ANS:
a. so the moment estimator is the solution to

Since

b. so the log likelihood is

Taking and equating to 0 yields

Taking

PTS: 1

6. The shear strength of each of ten test spot welds is determined, yielding the following data (psi):

395 379 404 370 392 365 412 418 361 378

a. Assuming that shear strength is normally distributed, estimate the true average shear strength and
standard deviation of shear strength using the method of maximum likelihood.
b. Again assuming a normal distribution, estimate the strength value below which 95% of all welds
will have their strengths. (Hint: What is the 95 percentile in terms of ? Now use the
invariance principle.)

ANS:
Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences Devore 8th Edition Test Bank

a.

and (this is not s).

b. The 95th percentile is , so the mle of this is (by the invariance principle) is given by

PTS: 1

7. Consider a random sample from the shifted exponential pdf

a. Obtain the maximum likelihood estimators of

b. A random sample of size results in the values 3.12, .65, 2.56, 2.21, 5.45, 3.43, 10.40, 8.94,
17.83, and 1.31, calculate the estimates of

ANS:
a. The joint pdf (likelihood function) is

Notice that
and that

Thus likelihood =

Consider maximization wrt . Because the exponent is positive, increasing will

increase the likelihood provided that if we make larger than the likelihood
drops to 0. This implies that the mle of The log likelihood is now
Equating the derivative wrt to 0 and solving yields

b.

PTS: 1

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