Binomial Distribution

1. It is given that X B(8, 0.3).

(a) Find P(X > 0). [2]
(b) State the value of E(X). [1]

2. In a certain town, 18% of all twenty-year olds are in further education. A selection of 10 twenty-
year olds from the town is made at random. Use a binomial model to calculate the probability that
two or more are in further education. [3]

3. An aircraft has 3 identical and independent fault detection systems. For each system the probability
that, when a fault occurs, it is immediately detected is 0.998. Find the probability that, when a fault
occurs, exactly one out of the three systems immediately detects it. [3]

4. Geranium seeds are sold in packets of ten. On average, it is found that 0.7 seeds per packet fail to
germinate. Find the variance of the number of seeds per packet that fail to germinate. [3]

5. The manufacturers of Brand X catfood plan a television advertisement based on the claim that "Eight
cats out of ten prefer Brand X". In fact Brand X is indistinguishable from any other brand, so that,
given a choice between Brand X and another brand, the probability that any cat chooses Brand X is
0.5. Ten cats are selected at random and each is given a choice between Brand X and another brand.
Show that the probability that 8 or more choose Brand X is 0.0547, correct to 3 significant
figures. [4]

6. It is given that X B(n, p).

(a) Write down E(X) and Var(X) in terms of n and p. [2]
(b) Given that E(X) = 10 and Var(X) = 8, find the value of p. [2]

7. Of the sweets made by a manufacturer, 30% are green. The contents of a packet of sweets may be
assumed to be a random sample of the manufacturer's output. I pick seven sweets out of a packet,
with my eyes closed. Find the probability that
(a) exactly two of the seven are green, [3]
(b) fewer than three are green. [2]

8. Each day a milkman collects the same number of bottles of milk from the dairy. On average he
delivers 96% of them. Assuming that the number of bottles he delivers per day has a binomial
distribution with a variance of 28.8, calculate
(a) the number of bottles he collects each day,
(b) the number of bottles he expects to return to the dairy each day. [5]
 9. A commuter, who caught the same train to work every day, kept a record over six months and found
that the train was late on 49 days out of a total of 126 working days. Use a binomial probability model
to estimate the probability that, in a five day working week, the train will be late exactly three times.
[4]
State briefly, giving reasons, whether a binomial distribution is likely to be a satisfactory or
unsatisfactory mathematical model in this situation. [2]

10. A do-it-yourself winerack kit contains 33 rods, which have to be fitted into appropriate sockets. The
number of badly fitting rods in a randomly chosen kit is denoted by X. State what needs to be assumed
about the rods in a kit in order to model the distribution of X by a binomial distribution. [1]
Given that the probability of any rod fitting badly is 0.05, use a binomial distribution
(a) to find P( X ≥ 3), [4]
(b) to obtain the mean and variance of X, giving your answers to 3 significant figures. [3]

11. A large number of groups, each consisting of 12 adults, are selected at random from the population
of a particular town. Given that 30% of the adults in this town are car owners, calculate
(a) the probability that a group contains not more than 2 car owners, [6]
(b) the mean and the standard deviation of the number of car owners in the groups. [3]

12. A large number of groups, each consisting of 9 households, is selected at random from the population
of a city. Given that 10% of the households in the city have dishwashing machines, calculate
(a) the probability that a group contains more than 2 households with dishwashing machines, [7]
(b) the mean and the standard deviation of the number of households, in the groups,
with dishwashing machines. [3]

13. 10% of a large batch of spark-plugs is faulty. The spark-plugs are sold in packs of four. Find the
probability that a particular pack contains
(i) exactly one faulty spark-plug, [2]
(ii) no more than one faulty spark-plug. [3]
14. (a) On average, a newsagent sells 96% of the newspapers delivered to his shop each week.
Assuming that the number of newspapers sold per week has a binomial distribution with a
standard deviation of 12, calculate the number of newspapers the newsagent would expect to
sell in a week. [5]
(b) At a particular school, children attend for 5 days in each week. On any given day the probability
that there is full attendance is 0.15. Calculate the probability that, in a given week, there is full
attendance
(i) on exactly 2 days,
(ii) on fewer than 3 days. [8]