Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 1

Revision Questions

1. A simple event
A) is a collection of exactly two outcomes
B) includes one and only one outcome
C) does not include any outcome
D) includes all possible outcomes

2. A compound event includes

A) at least three outcomes
B) one and only one outcome
C) at least two outcomes
D) all outcomes of an experiment

3. According to the relative frequency concept of probability, the probability of an event is

A) 1 divided by the total number of outcomes for the experiment
B) the number of times the given event is observed divided by the total number
of repetitions of the experiment
C) the number of outcomes favorable to the given event divided by the sample
space
D) the sample space divided by the number of outcomes favorable to the given
event

4. A conditional probability is a probability

A) of a sample space based on a certain condition
B) that an event will occur given that another event has already occurred
C) that an event will occur based on the condition that no other event is being
considered
D) that an event will occur based on the condition that no other event has already
occurred

5. A marginal probability is a probability of

A) a sample space
B) an outcome when another outcome has already occurred
C) an event without considering any other event
D) an experiment calculated at the margin

6. Two mutually exclusive events

A) always occur together
B) can sometimes occur together
C) cannot occur together
D) can occur together, provided one has already occurred

7. Two events are independent if the occurrence of one event

A) affects the probability of the occurrence of the other event
B) does not affect the probability of the occurrence of the other event
C) means that the second event cannot occur
D) means that the second event is certain to occur
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 2

8. Two complementary events

A) taken together do not include all outcomes for an experiment
B) taken together include all outcomes for an experiment
C) can occur together
D) are always independent

9. Two events A and B are independent if

A) P(A) is equal to P(B)
B) P(A|B) is equal to P(A)
C) P(B|A) is equal to P(A)
D) P(A|B) is equal to P(B)

10. If P( A  B) = P( A) P( B) , then events A and B are

A) A) complementary
B) B) mutually exclusive
C) C) independent
D) D) subjective

11. The intersection of two events A and B is made up of the outcomes that are:
A) either in A or in B or in both A and B
B) either in A or in B, but not both
C) common to both A and B
D) not common to both A and B

12. The probability of the intersection of two events A and B is given by:
A) P( A) + P( B) C) P( A) P ( A | B )
B) P( A) + P( B) − P( A and B) D) P( A) P ( B | A)

13. The joint probability of two independent events A and B is:

A) P( A) + P( B) C) P( A) P( B)
B) P( A) + P( B) + P( A or B) D) P( A) P ( A | B )

14. The probability of the union of two events A and B is the probability that:
A) neither event A happens nor event B happens
B) both events do not happen together
C) both events A and B happen together
D) either event A or event B or both A and B happen

15. A discrete random variable is a random variable:

A) that can assume any value in one or more intervals
B) whose set of values is countable
C) that is derived from a random population
D) that is determined by random probability
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 3

16. A continuous random variable is a random variable:

A) that can assume any value in one or more intervals
B) whose set of values is countable
C) that is derived from a random population
D) that is determined by random probability

17. Which of the following is not an example of a discrete random variable?

A) The number of days it rains in a month in New York
B) The number of stocks a person owns
C) The number of persons allergic to penicillin
D) The time spent by a physician with a patient

18. Which of the following is an example of a discrete random variable?

A) The weight of a box of cookies
B) The length of a window frame
C) The number of horses owned by a farmer
D) The distance from home to work for a worker

19. For a discrete random variable x, the probability of any value of x is:
A) always greater than 1 C) always in the range zero to 1
B) always less than zero D) never greater than zero

20. 1Which of the following is true for the probability distribution of a discrete random
variable x?
A) A)  P ( x )  0 B)  P ( x ) = 1 C)  P ( x ) = 2 D)  P ( x )  1

21. Which of the following is not a condition of the binomial experiment?

A) There are only two trials
B) Each trial has two and only two outcomes
C) p is the probability of success, q is the probability of failure, and p + q = 1
D) The trials are independent

22. The binomial probability distribution is symmetric if:

A) p is equal to 0.25 C) p is less than 0.50
B) p is equal to 0.50 D) p is greater than 0.50

23. The binomial probability distribution is right-skewed if:

A) p is 0.25 or smaller C) p is less than 0.50
B) p is equal to 0.50 D) p is greater than 0.50

24. The binomial probability distribution is left-skewed if:

A) p is 0.25 or greater C) p is less than 0.50
B) p is equal to 0.50 D) p is greater than 0.50
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 4

25. Which of the following is an example of a binomial experiment?

A) Rolling a die 10 times and observing for a number
B) Selecting five persons and observing whether they are in favor of an issue,
against it, or have no opinion
C) Tossing a coin 20 times and observing for a head or tail
D) Drawing three marbles from a box that contains red, blue, and yellow marbles

26. Which of the following is not a binomial experiment?

A) Rolling a die 25 times and observing for an even or odd number
B) Randomly selecting 50 items from a production line and observing if they are
good or defective
C) Rolling a die 20 times and observing for a number that is less than or equal
to 4 or greater than 4
D) Selecting 50 adults and observing if they are in favor of an issue, against it,
or have no opinion

27. Which of the following is not a condition to apply the Poisson probability distribution?
A) x is a discrete random variable C) The occurrences are random
B) There are n identical occurrences D) The occurrences are independent

28. A continuous random variable is a random variable that can:

A) assume only a countable set of values
B) assume any value in one or more intervals
C) have no random sample
D) assume no continuous random frequency

29. For a continuous random variable x, the probability that x assumes a value in an interval
is:
A) A) in the range zero to 1 B) greater than 1 C) less than zero
B) greater than 2

30. For a continuous random variable x, the total area under the probability distribution
curve of x is always:
A) A) less than 1 B) greater than 1 C) equal to 1 D) between zero and 1
Ans: C

31. The probability that a continuous random variable x assumes a single value is always:
A) A) less than 1 B) greater than zero C) equal to zero
B) D) between zero and 1

32. The normal probability distribution is applied to:

A) a discrete random variable C) any random variable
B) a continuous random variable D) a subjective random variable
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 5

33. Which of the following is not a characteristic of the normal distribution?

A) The total area under the curve is 1.0
B) The curve is symmetric about the mean
C) The value of the mean is always greater than the value of the standard
deviation
D) The two tails of the curve extend indefinitely

34. The total area under a normal distribution curve to the left of the mean is always:
A) A) equal to 1 B) equal to zero C) equal to 0.5 D) greater than .5

35. For a normal distribution, the spread of the curve decreases and its height increases as:
A) the sample size decreases
B) the standard deviation decreases
C) the ratio of the mean and standard deviation increases
D) the mean increases

36. For the standard normal distribution, the mean is:

A) 1 and the standard deviation is zero C) zero and the standard
deviation is 1
B) 0.5 and the standard deviation is 0.5 D) 1 and the standard
deviation is 1

37. For a normal distribution, the z value for an x value that is to the right of the mean is
always:
A) equal to zero B) negative C) greater than 1 D) positive

38. For a normal distribution, the z value for an x value that is to the left of the mean is
always:
A) equal to zero B) negative C) less than 1 D) positive

39. For a normal distribution, the z value for the mean is always:
A) A) equal to zero B) negative C) equal to 1 D) positive

1. B 2. C 3. B 4. B 5. C
6. C 7. B 8. B 9. B 10. C
11. C 12. D 13. C 14. D 15. B
16. A 17. D 18. C 19. C 20. B
21. A 22. B 23. C 24. D 25. C
26. D 27. B 28. B 29. A 30. C
31. C 32. B 33. C 34. C 35. B
36. C 37. D 38. B 39. A
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 6

Question 1

The degrees conferred by a university on 1,000 business graduates majoring in Accounting,

Human resource and E commerce between 2004 and 2008 were as follows:

Accounting(A) Human resource(H) E commerce(E) Total

Male(M) 100 300 150 550
Female(F) 120 200 130 450
220 500 280 1000

Suppose a graduate is selected. What is the probability that

i. the graduate is a female? (0.45)

ii. the graduate major in human resource? (0.5)

iii. the graduate major in human resource and is a female? (0.2)

iv. the graduate either major in human resource or a female? (0.75)

v. the graduate is a female given that he/she major in human resource? (0.4)

vi. the graduate major in human resource given that the graduate is a female? (0.44)

vii. the graduate major in accounting given that the student is a male? (0.18)

viii. Is the event that graduate is female and major in human resource independent? (not
independent)

ix. Is the event that graduate is male and major in accounting mutually exclusive? (not
mutually exclusive)
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 7

Question 2

A statistician was employed by a shopping mall to study the number of shops that customers
will actually enter. A random sample of 200 mall customers were selected and the table below
shows the probability distribution of the number of shops that mall customers entered.

No. of shops (x) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

P(x) 0.04 0.19 0.22 0.28 0.12 0.09 0.06

a. From the probability distribution, Find the probability that

i. a randomly selected customer enters 3 or more shops. (0.55)

ii. a randomly selected customer enters less than 5 shops. (0.85)

iii. a randomly selected customer enters more than1 but not more than 5 shops. (0.71)

b. Find the mean and standard deviation of the probability distribution. (2.76, 1.52)

Question 3

The probability that a housing loan application will be approved is 0.4.

a. Find the probability that in a random sample of 15 housing loan applications,

i) exactly 3 applications will be approved. (0.0634)

ii) less than 3 applications will be approved. (0.0271)

iii) at least 3 applications will be approved. (0.9729)

iv) Between 4 and 7 (inclusive) applications will be approved. (0.6964)

v) more than 3 but not more than 8 applications will be approved. (0.8145)

vi) Between 3 and 7 applications will not be approved. (0.0931)

vii) At most 2 applications will not be approved. (0.0003)

b. Find the mean and variance of the above binomial distribution. (6, 3.6)
Revision Questions (Chapter 4-6) Page 8

Question 4

Cars arriving at a petrol station with a mean of 36 cars per hour.

i) Find the probability that in the next 5 minutes, 2 or less cars will arrive at the petrol
station. (0.4232)

ii) Find the probability that in the next 5 minutes, exactly two cars will arrive at the petrol
station. (0.2240)

iii) Find the probability that in the next 5 minutes, four or more cars will arrive at the petrol
station. (0.3528)

iv) Find the probability that in the next 10 minutes, more than one but less than 6 cars will
arrive at the petrol station. (0.4283)

v) Find the mean and standard deviation of car arriving at the petrol station in the next 45
minutes. (27, 5.2)

Question 5

A chocolate waffle factory manufactures chocolate wafflers with a mean of 100 grams and a
standard deviation of 5 grams. Assume that the weights of waffles are normally distributed.
What is the probability that a randomly selected waffle

i) will weigh more than 95 grams? (0.8413)

ii) will weigh between 95 grams and 110 grams? (0.8185)

iii) will weigh between 105 grams and 115 grams? (0.1574)

iv) will weigh between 85 grams and 95 grams? (0.1574)

v) What is the probability that the sample mean of a random sample of 10 chocolate
wafflers will weigh more than 97.5 grams? (0.9429)

vi) Find the minimum weight of the heaviest 10% of the chocolate wafflers. (106.41)