MERU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

P.O. Box 972-60200 – Meru-Kenya.

Tel: 020-2069349, 061-2309217. 064-30320 Cell phone: +254 712524293, +254
789151411
Fax: 064-30321
Website: www.must.ac.ke Email: info@must.ac.ke

University Examinations 2017/2018

SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATION FOR DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
SCIENCE IN STATISTICS, ACTUARIAL SCIENCE. MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER
SCIENCE, BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, EDUCATION SCIENCE.

SMS 3200: PROBABILITY & STATISTICS II

DATE: DECEMBER 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS

INSTRUCTIONS: - Answer question one and any other two questions

QUESTION ONE (30 MARKS)

a) Define the following

(i) Discrete random variable (2 marks)
(ii) Probability distribution function (2 marks)
b) A random variable has a probability distribution given in the table

z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

P(z) k 3k 5k 7k 9k 11k 13k 15k 17k

(i) Determine the value of that make ( ) a pmf (3 marks)

(ii) Find p(3 ≤ z < 6) (2 marks)
c) A continuous random variable has probability density function given by

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 2 x ;0 ≤ x ≤ 1
f (x ) = 
0 otherwise
(i) Show that ( ) is a pdf (2 marks)
(ii) Find ( ) and variance of (4 marks)
d) (i) In a factory, it is expected that 20% of the day’s production will be defective. Find the
probability that in a sample of 10 units selected at randomly there will be exactly 4 defective
items. (4 marks)
(ii) Show that the moment generating function of the distribution in d(i) is given by

[pe t
+q ]
n
(3 marks)
(iii) Using mgf in d(ii) above ( ) and ( ) (4 marks)
e) A random variable has a normal distribution with mean 9 and S.D 3. Find p(5 < x ≤ 11)
and sketch desired region (4 marks)

QUESTION TWO (20 MARKS)

a) The probability density function of a random variable x is given as

 x for 0 ≤ x ≤ 1

f ( x ) = 2 − x for 1 ≤ x < 2
0 otherwise

(i) Find cumulative distribution function (3 marks)
3
(ii) Determine F   (2 marks)
2
(iii) Determine the median of the distribution (3 marks)
b) The time required to perform a certain job is a random variable having a normal distribution
with mean 55 and standard deviation of 10 minutes. Find the probability that;
(i) The job will take more than 75 minutes (2 marks)
(ii) The job will take less than 60 minutes (3 marks)
(iii) The job last between 45 and 60 minutes (3 marks)

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 c) The life expectancy of Kenyan’s in the year 1960 was 50 years. Data collected in 11 districts
of Kenya resulted in the following data. Do the data confirm the view that life expectancy
was 50 years at α = 5% (4 marks)
District 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Life 54.2 50.4 44.2 49.7 55.4 57.4 58 56 61 57.5 53

expectancy

QUESTION THREE (20 MARKS)

a) The life of a certain electrical component can be modelled by the random variable X given by
a cumulative probability density given below
0 x<0
 x2
1 0≤x<6

F (x ) =  4
 1 (x − 3) 6 ≤ x < 10
7

1 x > 10

(i) Find the probability that the component last at least 5 hrs. (2 marks)
(ii) Find the probability density function (x) (5 marks)
(iii) Find the expected life span of the component (3 marks)
b) Accidents on a section of the road occur at an average rate of 1.5 per week
(i) Write a suitable probability model to represent the probability of accidents per week
on this particular road. (2 marks)
(ii) Find the probability that there will be exactly 2 accidents in a given week (2 marks)
(iii) That there is at least 2 accidents in a week (3 marks)
(iv) That there occurs 4 or less accidents in a week (3 marks)

QUESTION FOUR (20 MARKS)

A discrete random variable is defined as

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 7− x
 x
1  1
    −  , x = 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
g (x ) =  x  2   2 
7C 1
0
 elsewhere

a) Find
(i) The moment generosity function of the (3 marks)
(ii) The mean of using mgf in (i) (2 marks)
(iii) The variance of using mgf in (i) (3 marks)
b) A random variable is normally distributed with mean 177 and standard deviation of 6.4.
(i) Find p(166 ≤ x ≤ 185) (4 marks)
(ii) It was suggested that might be a suitable random variable to model the height in cm
of adults moles. Give a reason why this is a sensible suggestions. (2 marks)
(iii) Briefly explain why mathematical models can help to improve our understanding of
real world problems (1 mark)
c) A breacher claims that his variety of fabric contains 40% cotton . 18 samples each 100
grams were taken and after testing, the following results were obtained on the amount of
cotton in the fabric.
36.3 36.6 37.5 37.9 36.7 37.9 37.5 37.0 36.7

37.0 37.5 37.9 36.9 38.5 38.8 37.1 36.8 35.7

Check the breacher’s claim at α = 0.01 level of significance (5 marks)

QUESTION FIVE (20 MARKS)

a) a fair 6 sited die is rolled. The random variable y represent the score on the uppermost face
(i) write the sample space of the experiment (3 marks)
(ii) write down the probability distribution of y (3 marks)
(iii) find the value of the following E (6 y + 2 ) and var(4 y − 2) for the above experiment
(7 marks)

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b) Define the moment generating function of a random variable (2 marks)
c) Let ( ) be a pdf from a random variable defined as
x + 3
 −3≤ x ≤ 3
f ( x ) =  18
0 o.w

Find
(i) Variance of (3 marks)
(ii) The standard deviation of (2 marks)

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