Engineering Maths (Probability)

1. If x is a continuous random variable and its p.d.f is f(x)  e x ,0  x   . Then P(x  1)

is__________.

2. If mode of a data is 21.3 and arithmetic mean is 32.1, then median is __________.

3. A fair coin is tossed 3 times in succession. If the first toss produces a tail, then the
probability of getting exactly two tails in next three tosses is____________.

4. If A, B, C are three mutually exclusive and exhaustive events associated with a random
experiment and P(A)=0.5 P(B) and P(C)=0.3P(B). Then P(B) =______________

5. For the continuous probability f(x)  Kx2 e x when x  0 , the value of ‘K’ is ______________.

6. The mean and variance of binomial variable X are 16 & 8 then the value of P(x  1) =?
1
(a) 0 (b) 1  33
2
1 1
(c) 1  32 (d) 1  32
2 3

 
7. If X is discrete random variable with E(x)=2, E(x2 )  5 then E (x  2)2 is_________

8. A and B are mutually exclusive events. For which P(A)=k, P(B)=0.5 and P(A B)  0.6 then
 
P Ac =__________

9. From 10 observation on price x and supply y, the following data was obtained.  x  130 ,
 y  220 ,  x2  2288 ,  y2  5506 and  xy  3467 . The coefficient of correlation is
____________

1  K 1  2K 1  3K
10. A random variable X takes the values 1, 2 and 3 with probabilities , ,
4 4 4
respectively. The mean of the distribution is ___________.

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

11. If X is a discrete random variable which takes 0, 1, 2, 3 with probabilities 0.2, 0.1, 0.3, 0.4
respectively. Then P(X  1)  _____________.

12. A random variable x takes the values 0  x   with pdf f(x)  e x then variance of x is
__________.

13. A random variable X follows the rectangular distribution which takes the value between 2
and 4. Thus mean and variance are respectively
(a) 3, 8 (b) 3,9
1 1
(c) 3, (d) ,3
3 3

14. A coin is tossed 9 times. What is the probability that only first two tosses will yield tails is
a10-3. The value of a is?

15. The weekly wages of 1000 works are normally distributed with a mean of Rs. 70 and
standard deviation of Rs. 5. Estimate the number of workers whose weekly wages will be
more than 80.___________ Assume Q(2) = 0.0228

16. The distance that a traveller travels is found to be a random phenomenon with a
Ae x /3 x  0

probability function f(x)   ,the value of A-1 is
0
 otherwise
(a) 2 (b) 1
(c) 3 (d) -3

17. A coin is tossed 5 times then the Probability that head appears even number of times

(a) 1/6 (b) 1/32

(c) 1/2 (d) 6/32

18. A regression model is used to express a variable Y as a function of another variable X.

This implies that

(a) There is a casual relationship between Y and X

(b) A value of X may be used to estimate a value of Y
(c) Value of X exactly determine value of Y
(d) There is no casual relationship between Y and X

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

19. If x1 , x 2 are two independent poisson random variable with variances 1, 2 then
p(x1  x2  4)

e 3 .3 4 e 3
(a) (b)
4! 4!
e .4 3
4
(c) (d) 1
3!

20. Eight similar balls are to be placed into 3 different boxes. If each box can hold any
number of balls, then in how many ways can the balls be placed in the boxes so that no
boxes remain empty?

(a) 56 (b) 35
(c) 21 (d) 42

21. A die is rolled 180 times, then the average number of occurrences of 4 is

(a) 5 (b) 25
(c) 30 (d) 40

22. The probability that two friends share the same birth-month is

(a) 1/6 (b) 1/12

(c) 1/144 (d) 1/24

23. In a population of N families, 50% of the families have three children, 30% of families
have two children and the remaining families have one child. What is the probability that a
random picked child belongs to a family with two children?

3 6
(a) (b)
23 23
3 3
(c) (d)
10 5

24. Out of 10,000 families with 4 children each, the probable number of families, all of whose
children are daughter is

(a) 1250 (b) 625

(c) 2500 (d) 9375

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

25. What is the probability of getting a sum of 9 from two throws of a dice?

(a) 1⁄6 (b) 1⁄8

(c) 1⁄9 (d) 1⁄12

26. An unbaised coin was tossed three times, the probability of getting at least two heads
is_____.

27. Two cards are drawn together from a pack of 52 cards. The probability that one is spade
and other is king, is

(a) 1⁄26 (b) 2⁄51

(c) 8⁄221 (d) None of these

28. There are 3 fair coins and 1 false coin with tails on both sides. A coin is chosen at random
and tossed 4 times. If ‘tails’ occurs in all 4 times, then the probability that the false coin has
been chosen for tossing is _______.

29. The standard deviation of sample given below is Sample: 1, 3, 2, 1, 5, 6, 3, 3

(a) 1.66 (b) 1.73

(c) 2.75 (d) 3

30. A box contains 4 bad and 6 good tubes. Two tubes are drawn at a time from the box. The
first tube found out to be good, then the probability that the other one is also good is

(a) 1⁄3 (b) 3⁄5

(c) 5⁄9 (d) None of these

31. From 6 positive and 8 negative numbers, 3 numbers are chosen at random (without
replacement) and multiplied. The probability that the product is positive will be __________.

188 18
(a) (b)
364 364
88 83
(c) (d)
364 364

32. Buses arrive at a specified stop at 15 minute intervals starting at 7 AM. If a passenger
arrives at the stop at a random time between 7:00 and 7:30 AM, then the probability that the
passenger waits less than 6 minutes is __________.

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

33. S1 ,S2 ,S3 ...............S16 are the players who are participating in a knockout tournament.
Probability that S1 beats S2 in semi final is x  103 then the value of x is ______

34. A pair coin is tossed till a head appear for the first time. The probability that the number
of required tosses is odd is __________

1 1
(a) (b)
3 6
5 2
(c) (d)
6 3

35. Probability density function of a random variable x is as shown below. If  is T/c, then the
value of T is________.

36. S can solve 90% of the problems given in a book and T can solve 70%. The probability
that at least one of them will solve a problem selected at random from the book is
___________.

37. A dice is rolled 5 times. The probability that ‘3’ will show up exactly twice is

(a) 0.16075 (b) 0.2318

(c) 0.1865 (d) 0.2016

38. S1 ,S2 ,S3 ...............S16 are the players who are participating in a knockout tournament.
Probability that S1 will be the winner is y  10 3 then the value of y is __________

39. If two events A and B are such that A  B and B  A , the relation between P(A) and P(B)
is
(a) P(A)  P(B) (b) P(A)  P(B)
(c) P(A)  P(B) (d) None of these

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

40. Two cards are drawn successively, with replacement from a pack of 52 cards. The
probability of drawing two aces is:

1 1 1 1
(a)  (b) 
13 13 13 17
1 1 1 1
(c)  (d) 
25 51 3 51

41. Two dice marked to 6 are tossed together. The probability of getting a sum of 7 in a
single throw is _____________.
1 5
(a) (b)
6 6
2 1
(c) (d)
3 3

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

Solutions

1. Ans: 0.63-0.64
1
1
Solution: For continuous random variable P(x  1)   e x dx   e x  1  e1  0.632
0
0

2. Ans: 28 to 29
1 21.3  64.2
Solution: Median  Mode  2 Mean   28.5
3 3

3. Ans: 0.5
Solution: Total number of outcomes are
S={THH, TTH, THT, TTT}
Favourable cases are TTH, TTT
2 1
Required probability= 
4 2

4. Ans: 0.42 to 0.48

Solution: A, B, C are mutually exclusive
P(A)  P(B)  P(C)  1
0.5P(B)  P(B)  0.3P(B)  1
1.8P(B)  1

1 5
P(B)  
1.8 9
5 4
P(B)  1  
9 9

5. Ans: 0.5
 

Solution: We have  f(x)dx  1   kx2e x dx  1  x  0  (by integration by parts)

 0
   

 kx e dx   kx e |   k(2 x)e dx  0  k(2 x)e   k(2) e x dx  2k  1
2 x 2 x x x

0 0
0 0 0

1
k
2

6. Ans: (c)
Solution: Given Mean =np=16 ...............(1)
And Variance= npq=8 ...................(2)
npq 8 1 1 1
(2)  (1)   q p 1 
np 16 2 2 2

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

16 16
From (1), n    32
p 1
 
2
P(x  1)  1  P(x  1)  1  P(x  0)
As the distribution is binomial
0 320
 1  1 1
P(x  0) n Cx (p)x (q)nx  1 32 C0      1
2 2 232

7. Ans: 17
   
Solution: E (x 2)2  E x2  4x  4  E(x2 )  4E(x)  E(4)  17

8. Ans: 0.9
Solution:
P(A B)  P(A)  P(B) (as A and B are mutually exclusive)
0.6  K  0.5
K  0.1
P(A)  0.1

 
P Ac  1  0.1  0.9

9. Ans: 0.9 to 1.0

130 220
Solution: x   13, Y   22
10 10
1 1
cov(x, y) n
 xy  x y 10
3467   1322
r    0.961
x ,  y 1 1 1 1
n
 x2  x 2 n  y 2  y 2 10
2288   132 10 5506   222

10. Ans: 2.0 to 2.5

Solution  p(x)  1
1  k 1  2k 1  3k 1
   1  3  6k  4  k 
4 4 4 6
 1 k   1  2k   1  3k  6  14k
Mean= E(x)   xipi  1    2   3 
 4   4   4  4
 1
6  14  
 E(x)   6   2.0833
4

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

11. Ans: 0.8

Solution: P(X  1)  P(x  1)  P(x  2)  P(x  3)  0.1  0.3  0.4  0.8

12. Ans: 1
2

  
Solution: V(x)  E(x )  E(x)   x e
2
2 2 x
   xe x dx 
0  0 
2

  x 
0 x e dx 2   xe dx   (1)  1
2 x
 and 2

0 
 V(x)  2  1  1

13. Ans: (c)

Solution: Given that a=2, b=4
ab
Mean= 3
2
Variance for rectangular or uniform distribution is given as
(b a)2 4 1
Variance=  
12 12 3

14. Ans: 1.9 to 2.0

Solution: As probability of getting a tail and head is equi-probable then,
7
1
Probability of getting two tosses result tails is  
2
2 7 9
1 1 1
Required probability=        
2 2 2

15. Ans 22 to 23
 80  70 
Solution: P(x  80)  P  z    P(z  2) =Q(2) = 0.0228
 5 
Here, Q is the tail function of Gaussian distribution.
No. of workers= 1000  0.0228  22.8  23

16. Ans: (c)

Solution: As, the total area under the continuous probability function is equal to 1.
 Ae x/3  1

0

1
A
3

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

17. Ans: (c)

Solution: No. of even or odd outcomes are equally likely= 2n-1
2n1 1
P= n 
2 2

18. Ans: (b)

Solution: A regression estimation equation looks a like Y=kX+b,
Where y is the dependent variable, k and b are an array of coefficient,

19. Ans: (a)

Solution: Here, E(x) =variance=2+1=3

E(X)x eE(x) 34 e3

P(x) = 
x! 4!

20. Ans: (c)

Solution: The given problem is to find number of ways of dividing the 8 similar balls into 3
group with each group having at least one ball
Thus, the required number of ways is equal to the number of positive integral solution of the
equation x1  x2  x3  8 which is equal to n-1Cr-1, here n=8 and r=3
8-1
C31  7C2  21
(Note: The number of positive integral solutions of the equation x1  x2  x3 ............xr  n is
n  1cr 1 )

21. Ans: (c)

Solution: Expectation= total no. of events (n) x favourable probability (p)
1 5
n=180: p q
6 6
1
Average=E(x)=n.p=180.  30
6

22. Ans: (b)

Solution: One of two persons may born in any month.
Then the probability that the second person also may born in the same month is 1/12
 Required probability P(E)=1/12

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

23. Ans: (b)

N
Solution: Number of children belonging to families with 3 children= .3
2
3N
Number of children belonging to families with 2 children= .2
10
2N
Number of children belonging to families with 1 child=
10
3N
.2
10 6
Required probability= 
3N 6N 2N 23
 
2 10 10

24. Ans: (b)

4
 1
Solution: P (all daughter) =  
2
4
1
Mean (or Expectation) = np  10,000     625
2

25. Ans: (c)

Solution: Favourable outcomes={(3,6),(4,5),(5,4),(6,3)}
Total possible outcomes=36
4 1
 probability  
36 9

26. Ans: 0.25

Solution: Total possible outcomes=23=8
The unfavourable outcomes is the one in which all three heads are obtained and two heads.
As, the events are equiprobable
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Required probability= . .  . . 
2 2 2 2 2 2 4

27. Ans: (a)

Solution: Total possible outcomes= 52 C2  1326
Favourable outcomes=drawing any spade apart from king of spades along with any king left
in pack + drawing king of spades with any three kings left in pack

Note: it is necessary that spade and king’s card should be different. So in 2nd case, when king
of spade’s is drawn it is considered as a spade.
Favourable outcomes= 12 C1  4 C1  1 C1  3 C1 =51
51 1
Probability= 
1326 26

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

28. Ans: 0.80 to 0.89

Solution: Event A: false coin is chosen
Event B: tail occurs 4 times
Event AC: fair coin is chosen
1
Probability of selecting a false coin= P(A) =
4
Probability of getting a tail on every flip of false coin=1.
 P(B | A)  1
3
Probability of selecting a fair coin= P(AC ) =
4
Probability of flipping a fair coin 4 times and getting
4
C 1 1
P(B| A )=   
2 16
By Baye’s Theorem

P(B | A)  P(A)
P(A | B) 
P(B | A)  P(A)  P(B | A C )  P(A C )
1 1 / 4 16
P(A | B)    0.84
1 1 / 4  1 / 16  3 / 4 19

29. Ans: (a)

13 215 6 33
Solution: Mean= 3
8
(1  3)2  (3  3)2  (2  3)2 .....(3  3)2
Standard deviation=  1.66
8

30. Ans: (c)

Solution: The first tube is known to be good
 4 bad and 5 good tube are left at the time of second withdrawal.
favourable outcomes
5
C 5
Required probability= = 9 1 
total possible outcomes C1 9
31. Ans: (a)
Solution: Favourable outcomes=All 3 chosen number are positive+1 is positive and other 2
are negative  6 C3  6 C1  8 C2  20  6  28
Total possible outcomes= 14
C3
14  13  12
 364
6
188
 Required probability=
364

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

32. Ans: 0.40

Solution: Let the passenger arrives‘t’ minutes past 7:00 AM
Arrival of passenger is random, that is, uniformly distributed over the 30 minute period.
1
Probability function of passenger’s arrival, P(x) 
30
The passenger must not wait for more than 6 minutes, therefore, the passenger must reach
the stop between 7:09 AM to 7:15 AM to catch the bus at 7:15 AM or between 7:24 AM to
7:30 AM to catch the bus at 7:30 AM.
15 30
1 1 2
Required probability=P(9<x<15)+P(24<x<30)=  dx   dx   0.4
9
30 24
30 5
Or by Classical Approach
There are 30 slots (minutes) to arrive out of which favourable ones are
(7:10,7:11,7:12,7:13,7:14,7:15,7:24,7:25,7:26,7:27,7:28,7:29,7:30) = 12 cases

12
P(E)=  0.4
30

33. Ans: 8.2 to 8.4

Solution: If S1 beats S2 in semi final
So, S1 and S2 both must reach in semi-final,
16  2
C 4 2
Probability of S1 and S2 reach in semi-final 16
C4
1 1
Probability of S1 and S2 play semi-final with each other= 
3
C1 2
 162 C   1 1  1
Hence probability of S1 beats S2 in semi-final  16 4 2    3     8.3  103
   
C4   C1 2  120

34. Ans: (d)
Solution: P(E)=probability of occurring head in odd number of tosses=P(H)+P(TTH)+............
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
P      ...........   3  5  ...........
2 2 2 2 2 2 2
As, above progression is a G.P. with a=0.5 and r=0.25
1
1 4 2
P 2   
1 2 3 3
1
4

35. Ans: 2
Solution: We know that area under the probability density curve=1
 area= 1  a  c  a  1 c
2   2

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

 1 c =1
2
2

c
36. Ans: 0.96 to 0.98
90
Solution: P(S)   0.9 =probability of event that s solves the problem
100
70
P(T)   0.7 =probability of event that T can solve the problem
100
P(S)  1  0.9  0.1

P(T)  1  0.7  0.3

P(No one can solve)=0.1*0.3=0.03
P(at least one can solve)= 1-0.03=0.97

37. Ans: (a)

Solution: Here, probability of getting ‘3’ on dice is
1
P  P{A} 
6
And, probability of not getting a ‘3’ on dice is
5
q  P{A} 
6
2 3
5!  1   5 
So, P{‘3’} shows up exactly twice in 5 trials  C2p q
5 2 52
      0.16075
2!3!  6   6 

38. Ans: 62.5

Solution: Probability that S1 will be the winner, in an knock out tournament
1
Every person wining is equi-probable, hence  0.0625  62.5  10 3
16

39. Ans: (c)

Solution: If A is the subset of B and B is the subset of A.
Then P(A)=P(B)

40. Ans: (a)

Solution: Required probability as card are drawn with replacement, then probability remains
4 4 1 1
the same every time =   
52 52 13 13
41. Ans: (a)
Solution: Favourable cases are (1, 6)(2, 5) (3, 4)(4, 3)(5, 2)(6, 1)
6 1
Required probability= 
36 6
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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

We recommend you to take the Chapter Test first and then check
the Solutions.

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

Chapter Test Solutions

1. Ans: (c)

2. Ans: (b)
Solution: Leap year= 366  (52 7)  2days


Complete weeks
rd
53 Monday depends on the two days. The two days may be (Mon, Tue),(Tue, Wed), (Wed,
Thu), (Thu, Fri), (Sat, Sun), (Sun, Mon)
2
Probability if 53rd Monday=
7
3. Ans: (a)
Solution: F(x)  P(X  x) is cumulative distribution function
 F( 2)  0.1;
F(0)  f( 2)  f( 1)  f(0)  0.1  0.2  0.4  0.7
and similarly, F(2)  0.1  0.2  0.4  0.2  0.1  1
Here, f(x) indicates PDF i.e. Probability Distribution Function which indicates the probability
that X=x i.e. f(x) = P(X=x)

4. Ans: (c)
Solution: Since probability is very less and number of trials are large so applying Poisson
distribution given p=0.003, n=1000
  np  1000  0.003  3
Probability that none suffers from a bad reaction,
e  0 e3 .1
P(x  0)    e3  0.0498
0! 1

5. Ans: (a)
Solution:   1
P(x  3)  1  P(x  3)  1  P(x  0)  P(x  1)  P(x  2)
 e1 1 0 e1 1 1 e1 1 2   1
  e1   5e1 
  1  e  e    1 
1
P(x  3)  1     
 0! 1! 2!   2   2 
 

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

6. Ans: (b)
Solution: Mode is the value of ‘x’ for which f(x) is maximum i.e. it has maximum chances of
occurring or it occurs most frequently
1
f (x)  cos x
3
Stationary points are f (x)  0
1
cos x  0
3

x
2
1
f (x)   sin x
3
 1 
f       0 max value exists at x=
2 3 2

Mode=
2

7. Ans: (d)
Solution: P=probability of success=probability (getting 2 or 3)
1 1 1
P=probability (getting 2)+ probability (getting 3)=  
6 6 3
2
q(failure)  1  p 
3
n5
1 5
Mean=np= 5  
3 3
1 2 10
Variance=npq= 5   
3 3 9

8. Ans: (a)
2
 x  
1 
Solution: P density  e
2
2x

 2
  1.6
  0.4
2


 x 1.6 
1
f x 
2
2 0.4 
e
0.4 2
e x  1.6  0.6
0.6  x  1.6  0.6

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

1  x  2.2
2


 x 1.6
1
P  x  1.6  0.6   
2
2 0.4 
e . dx
0.4 2
Put x  1.6  t
dx  dt
0.6
1
P  x  1.6  0.6 
 t2  3.125

4 2
e dt  0.8664

9. Ans: (b)
Solution: Using Bayes Theorem,
0.3  0.05 5
P Faulty and of Plant 2   
0.5  0.02  0.3  0.05  0.2  0.01 9

10. Ans: (b)

Solution: s={0,1,2,......9}
Suppose we want a particular integer ‘3’ to be chosen
9
Probability of not choosing ‘3’ is (in one chances)
10
9 9 9
Probability of not choosing ‘3’ in all the three chances=  
10 10 10
27 973
Hence probability of choosing if in at least one of the three chances= 1  
1000 1000

11. Ans: (b)

Solution: Let E i be the event of a person to get into accident, then P(Ei )  p
P (at least one man meet with an accident)  P E1  E2      En  
=1-P(no man meet an accident)  1  P E1 P E2      P En 
      
 1  (1  P)(1  P)      (1  P)  1  (1  p)n
1
Hence P (at least one man meets with an accident a person chosen) = 1  (1  p)n 
n 

12. Ans: (a)

1
n
 xy  xy
Solution: r 
1 2 1 2

n
 x2  x
n
 y2  y

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 Engineering Maths (Probability)

x
x 4
 0.4
n 10

y
 y  3  0.3
n 10
1
(3)  (0.4)(0.3)
10 1
r 
1 1 4
(8)  (0.4)2 (9)  (0.3)2
10 10

13. Ans: (a)

2 2
Solution: f(x)  
y 0
f(x, y)dy   xydy  2x
0
2 2
f(y)   f(x, y)dx   xydx  2y
x 0 0

14. Ans: (a)

Solution: A: Transmitting 1 A C : Transmitting ‘0’: B: receiving 1
BC : receiving ‘0’
P(AC ) =0.4 P(B/ A) =0.9 P(Bc / Ac ) =0.95
P(A)=0.6 P(B/ Ac ) =1- P(Bc / Ac ) =0.05

By Baye’s Theorem
P(B | A)  P(A) 0.6  0.9 27
P(A | B)   
P(B | A)  P(A)  P(B | A )  P(A ) 0.6  0.9  0.4  0.05 28
C C

15. Ans: (a)


 1 x 
 
 x 
Solution: Probability (P>2)=  f(x)dx    e 2  dx   e 2   e1  0.368
2 2
2     2

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