.

CLABE Statistics

Homework assignment - Problem sheet 6

1.
The students at a local university spend a lot of money each term on textbooks. Suppose that
the amount of money spent on textbooks for a term, denoted by
with a mean of

e160

and a standard deviation of

e20.

in the panel below;

f(x)

(a) Sketch the density function of

X , follows a normal distribution

(b) the local bookstore will oer a t-shirt to any student who spends more than

e200

on

textbooks. What proportion of students are eligible for the t-shirt?

(c) Compute the probability that a student selected at random will spend between 100 and 150
euros on textbooks;
(d) Justin spent

e170

on textbooks. What percentile does this value of

e170

correspond to?

(e) Complete the sentence: Based on the above model, 20% of the students spend less than

e____

on textbooks.

SOLUTION
In the following,

will always denote a random variable following a standard normal distribution.

(a) The the plot of the density function of

X
1

is

0.02
0.01
0.00

f(x)

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

240

(b) The proportion of students eligible for the t-shirt is equal to the probability that a randomly
selected student will spend more than 200 euros on textbooks. This amounts to 2.28% as
computed below,

P (X > 200) = 1 P (X 200) = 1 P (Z 2) = 1 (2) = 1 0.9772 = 0.0228.

(c)

P (100 < X < 150) = P (3 < Z < 0.5) = (.5) (3) = 0.3085 0.0013 = 0.3072.
(d) This percentile is the proportion of students who spend less than

e170

on textbooks, that

is

P (X 170) = P (Z 0.5) = (0.5) = 0.6915.

(e) Since the equation

P (X < x) = 0.20 is satised for x = 1600.8420 = 143.2, the sentence

can be completed as follows:

143.2 on textbooks.

Based on the above model, 20% of the students spend less than

2.
Half Moon Bay, California, has an annual pumpkin festival at Halloween. A prime attraction to
this festival is a largest pumpkin contest. Suppose that the weights of these giant pumpkins
are approximately normally distributed with a mean of 125 pounds and a standard deviation of
18 pounds. Farmer Harv brings a pumpkin that is at the 85% percentile of all the pumpkins in
the contest. What is the approximate weight of Harv's pumpkin?

SOLUTION
If we denote by

the weight of the pumpkins, then the approximate weight of Harv's pumpkin

is given by the value

z = 1.03

satised for

P (X x) = 0.85. Since the

x = 125 + 1.03 18 = 143.54 pounds.

such that

then

equation

P (Z z) = 0.85

is

3.
A random variable

X N (, 2 ).

is normally distributed with mean

and standard deviation

that is,

What is the probability that a term selected at random from this population will

be more than 2.5 standard deviations from the mean?

SOLUTION

P ({X < 2.5 } {X > + 2.5 }) = 1 P ( 2.5 < X < + 2.5 )

= 1 P (2.5 < Z < 2.5)
= 1 [(2.5) (2.5)]
= 1 [0.9938 0.0062] = 0.0124.
4.
The normal random variable

0.90.

Find the mean

has a standard deviation of 12. We also know that

P (X > 50) =

of the distribution.

SOLUTION
Since

P (Z > 1.28) = 0.90

(50 )/12 = 1.28

then

and therefore

= 50 + 1.28 12 = 65.36.

5.
You took a multiple-choice test.

Suppose that the average test score is 70 with a standard

deviation of 5 and you scored 82. If the distribution of scores is approximately normal, then how
good did you do?
SOLUTION
If

denotes the score of a student selected at random, then

P (X 82) = P (Z 2.4) = 0.9918

and therefore you did very well because your score corresponds to the 99.18 percentile of all the
scores.
6.
Let

X1

and

X2

(a) Calculate

two i.i.d. random variables with discrete uniform distribution on the set

E(X1 ),

Var(X1 ),

E(X2 )

and Var(X2 ).

(b) Find the probability mass function of

(c) Calculate

E(S)

S = X1 + X2 .

and Var(S).

{0, 1, 2}.

D = X1 X2 .

(d) Find the probability mass function of

(e) Calculate

E(D)

and Var(D).

(f ) Verify that

E(D) = E(X1 ) E(X2 )

E(S) = E(X1 ) + E(X2 ),

and that
Var(S)

=Var(D) =Var(X1 )+Var(X2 ).

SOLUTION

(a) Since

X1

and

X2

E(X1 ) = E(X2 ) and Var(X1 )=Var(X2 ).

E(X1 ) = 1, E(X12 ) = 35 and Var(X1 ) = 35 1 = 23 .

are identically distributed, then

Furthermore, it is easy to compute

(b) The possible values of

s = x1 + x2

for

x1 = 0, 1, 2

x2 = 0, 1, 2

and

are as follows

X1

X2

Every entry of the above table has probability

1/9

so that the probability mass function of

is

P (S = s)

1
9

2
9

3
9

2
9

1
9

S
4=

(c) One can use the probability distribution of

E(S) = 2, E(S 2 ) =

48
9 and Var(S)

(d) The possible values of

d = x1 x2

48
9

for

computed in the previous point to see that

4
3.

x1 = 0, 1, 2

and

x2 = 0, 1, 2

are as follows

X1

X2

-1

-2

-1

Every entry of the above table has probability

1/9

so that the probability mass function of

is

-2

-1

P (D = d)

1
9

2
9

3
9

2
9

1
9

(e) One can use the probability distribution of

E(D) = 0,

Var(D)

E(D2 )

4
3.

computed in the previous point to see that

(f ) This check can be easily carried out by comparing the results of point (a) above with the
results of points (c) and (e).
7.
Let
the

X1 , X2 , . . . , X50
set {0, 1, 2}.

a sequence of i.i.d. random variables with discrete uniform distribution on

(a) Find the support of the random variable

(b) Calculate

E(S)

obtained as

S = X1 + X2 + + X50 ;

and Var(S);

(c) nd the approximate distribution of

S;

(d) nd the support of the random variable

given by

= X1 + X2 + + X50 ;
X
50
(e) nd the approximate distribution of

;
X

(f ) calculate the approximate probability that

(g) compute the approximate probability that

35 S 65;
1.3.
0.7 X

SOLUTION

(a) The random variable

can take on any value in the set

(b) As shown in the previous exercise

a

X1 , X2 , . . . , X50

are i.i.d., then

{0, 1, 2, . . . , 98, 99, 100}

E(Xi ) = 1 and Var(Xi ) = 23 for every i = 1, . . . , 50.

E(S) = 50 and Var(S) = 100
3 .

(c) It is possible to apply the central limit theorem to show that

(d) The random variable

(e)

S N (50, 100/3).

can take on any value in the set

0 1 2
98 99 100
,
,
,..., ,
,
50 50 50
50 50 50

= E(Xi ) = 1
E(X)

Since

and Var(X)

theorem the distribution of


that is

{0, 0.02, 0.04, . . . , 1.96, 1.98, 2}

=Var(Xi )/50 = 2/150.

Furthermore, by the central limit

is approximatively normal, that is

N (1, 2/150).
X

(f )

P (35 S 65) P (2.59 Z 2.59) = (2.59) (2.59) = 0.9952 0.0048 = 0.9904.

N (1, 2/150).
X
35 = 50 0.7 and 65 = 50 1.3 so

(g) This probability can be computed by noticing that

and that
S = 50 X
1.3) = P (35 S 65) = 0.9904.
also note that

However, one can

that

P (0.7 X