Poisson distribution

Name…………………………….

(1) Sales on a website have a mean of 10 per hour. The marketing manager believes that
these sales can be modeled by a Poisson distribution.

(a) What assumptions is the marketing manager making? Are these reasonable
assumptions?

(b) Find the probability that there are more than 250 sales in a day.

(c) Given that there are more than 250 sales in a day, find the probability that there are
less than 280 sales in a day.

(d) In one week, find the probability that there are less than 230 sales on at least 3 days.

(2) A small office has one elevator. People arriving at this ground floor elevator can be
modeled by a Poisson distribution with 2 arrivals of people per minute.

(a) Find the probability that exactly 3 people arrive in one minute.

(b) Find the probability that more than 3 people arrive in a minute.

The elevator is programmed to leave precisely at the start of each minute, but only if
the elevator has at least 3 people in it. The elevator starts operation at 9am.

(c) Given that less than 3 people arrive during 9am, find the probability that someone
arrives during 9am and has to wait until 9.03am until the elevator leaves with them
inside.

Copyright © Andrew Chambers (2021). All rights reserved.

(3) A coffee shop owner notices that customers enter the shop at a rate of 15 per hour
during the 3 hours in the morning from 7am to 10am. They decide to model this by
using a Poisson distribution.

(a) What assumptions are the coffee shop owner making in choosing a Poisson model –
are these likely to be reasonable assumptions?

(b) Find the probability that more than 20 people enter the shop in an hour.

The coffee owner classifies trade as “Good” if more than 20 people enter in an hour
and “Poor” if less than 10 people enter in an hour.

(c) Find the probability that from 7am to 10am, trade is classified as “Good” for all 3
hours.

(d) Find the probability that from 7am to 10am, trade is classified as “Poor” twice.

(4) Bobby goes fishing at a lake where he knows he usually catches 2.3 fish per hour. He
goes fishing for 8 hours each Saturday. He decides to model the number of fish caught
using a Poisson model.

(a) What is the probability that Bobby catches more than 20 fish on a Saturday?

(b) Bobby goes fishing 4 Saturdays in a row. What is the probability that he catches more
than 20 fish on at least 3 of these days?

Copyright © Andrew Chambers (2021). All rights reserved.