MAT 215 - BASIC STATISTICS

ASSIGNMENT FOR SESSION 3

NAME
SCORE
1.

Identifying Probability Values:

a)

What is the probability of an event that is certain to

occur?

b)

What is the probability of an impossible event?

c)

A sample space consists of 25 separate events that are

equally likely. What is the probability of each?

d)

On a true/false test, what is the probability of

answering a question correctly if you make a random
guess?

e)

On a multiple-choice test with 5 possible answers for

each question, what is the probability of answering a
question correctly if you make a random guess?

2.

On an exam on probability concepts, Sue had an answer of

17/9 for one problem. Explain how she knew that this result
was incorrect.

3.

A couple plans to have three children.

a) What is the probability that they will have
at least one girl?
P(at least 1 girl) =
b) What is the probability they will have exactly 2 girls?
P(exactly 2 girls) =

4.

Baseball player Mark McGwire broke a record when he hit 70

home runs in the 1998 season. During that season, he was at
bat 509 times. If one of those at bats is randomly
selected, find the probability that it is one of the times
he hit a home run.
P(home run) =

5.

Probability of a Birthday:
a)
If a person is randomly selected, find the probability
that his or her birthday is October 18, which is
National Statistics Day in Japan. Ignore leap years.
b)

6.

If a person is randomly selected, find the probability

that his or her birthday is in July. Ignore leap
years. [Note: You are using days not months.]

Finding Complements
a)
If P(A) = 0.54, find P( A).
P( A) =
b)
Based on recent data from the U.S. National Center
for Health Statistics, the probability of a baby being
a boy is 0.513. Find the probability of a baby girl.
P(girl) =

7.

Find the probability of getting the outcome of tails and 3

when a coin is tossed and a single die is rolled.
P(tails AND 3) =

8.

Given the following table:

Survived
Died
TOTAL

Titantic Mortality
Men
Women
Boys
332
318
29
1360
104
35
1692
422
64

Girls
27
18
45

TOTAL
706
1517
2223

a.
If we randomly select someone who was aboard the
Titanic, what is the probability of getting a man?
P(Man) =
b.
If we randomly select someone who was aboard the
Titanic, what is the probability of getting a man,
given that the selected person died?
P(Man and Died) =
c. If we randomly select someone who was aboard the
Titanic, what is the probability of getting a girl
given that the selected person survived?
P(Girl | Survived) =
9.

Identify the given random variable as being discrete or

continuous.
a.

The height of a randomly selected basketball player

of the NBA.
b.
The number of movies currently being shown in U.S.
theaters.

c.

The exact running time of a randomly selected movie.

d.
The number of actors appearing in a randomly
selected movie.
e.
The weight of the lead actor in a randomly
selected movie.

10. When manufacturing DVSs for Sony, batches of DVDs are

randomly selected and the number of defects x is found for
each batch.
x
0
1
2

|
|
|
|

P(x)
0.502
0.365
0.098

3
4

|
|

0.011
0.001

Determine whether a probability distribution is given. If

this is not a probability distribution, identify the
requirements that are not satisfied. If this is a valid
probability distribution, find its mean and standard
deviation.
11.

Determine whether the given procedure results in a binomial

distribution. For those that are not binomial, identify at
least one requirement that is not satisfied.
a.

Rolling a die 50 times.

b.

Recording the genders of 250 newborn babies.

c.

Spinning a roulette wheel 12 times.

d.
Surveying people by asking them what they think of
statistics.

12.

Multiple-choice questions each have five possible answers,

one of which is correct. Assume that you guess the answers
to three such questions. Use the multiplication rule to
find the probability that the first two guesses are wrong
and the third is correct. That is, find P(WWC), where C
denotes a correct answer and W denotes a wrong answer.

13.

If you bet on any single number in roulette, your

probability of winning is 1/38. Assume that you bet on a
single number in each of 100 consecutive spins.
a)

Find the mean and standard deviation for the number of

wins for this binomial distribution.

Mean =
Standard Deviation =
b)

14.

Would it be unusual to not win once in the 100 trials?

Why or Why not?

Ten percent of American adults are left-handed.

a)
Find the mean and standard deviation for the number of
left-handed students in a class of 25 students.

b)

Would it be unusual to survey a class of 25 students and

find that 5 of them are left-handed? Why or why not?

PROBLEMS USING STATDISK

1.

Assume that boys and girls are equally likely and 100 births
are randomly selected. Use STATDISK with n = 100 and
p = 0.5 to find P(x), where x represents the number of girls
among the 100 babies.

P(X)

35
45
50

2.

In problem #1, we assumed that boys and girls are equally

likely, but the actual values are P(boy) = 0.5121 and
P(girl) = 0.4879. Using these values, where x represents
the number of girls, determine the probability P(x). Use

STATDISK with n = 100 and p = 0.4879.

P(X)

35
45
50

PROBABILITIES THROUGH SIMULATIONS USING STATDISK

3.

Simulate the rolling of single die 500 times by randomly

generating 500 integers between 1 and 6. Arrange the
results in descending order so that it becomes easy to count
the number of 6s. Based on the results, what is the
estimated probability of getting a 6 when a single die is
rolled?
P(6) =

4.

/500

__________

Simulate a production run of 500 computers that are

manufactured with a 5% rate of defects. Do this by
generating 500 integers between 1 and 100, and consider
outcomes of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 to be defects. It is easy
to count the number of defects if you arrange the data in
ascending order.
P(defective computer) =

/500

= __________

INTERNET PROBLEMS
1.

Logon your browser.

Go to the course at Blackboard.ndm.edu and logon.
Select external links.
Select the site National Center for Health Statistics
www.cdc.gov/nchs
Select FASTATS A to Z.
Select W
Select Whooping Cough in order to find the information
needed to answer the following questions.

A.

How many people in the United States had whooping cough

in 2002?

B.

How many people in the United States died of whooping

cough in 2002?

C.

Estimate the probability that a randomly selected

person in the U.S. will be afflicted with whooping
cough. The estimated population of the United States
in 2002 was 287,941,220 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau).
[Note: You are calculating the probability that a
randomly selected person in the U.S. will be afflicted
with whooping cough in 2002.]
P(person in U.S. had whooping cough in 2002) =

D.

2.

Logon
Go to
Click
Click

Use the above probability to estimate the number of

Americans afflicted with whooping cough in 2005. The
estimated population of Americans on January 1, 2006 is
297,821,175.

your browser.
the course at Blackboard.ndm.edu and logon.
on external links
on Essential of Statistics to go to the site
http://www.aw.com/triolaessentials
Click on Student Area
Click on Internet Projects found in the box on the
left under Student Area.
Click on Chapter 4.
Read the Introduction and the Background.
At the beginning of the section Mathematical Analysis is a
place for you to click to view an animation that
simulates the path of one marble through a quincunx
with 10 rows of pegs. Watch the animation. Below is a
diagram of what you will see at this site.

A.

After watching the animation, describe in words

the outcome of the animation.

On exercise #4 you can click on here to view an animation

that simulates the quincunx using 350 marbles and 8 rows of
pegs. (Remark: This may take some time.)
B.

After watching the animation, describe in words the

outcome of the animation.