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Computing Means and Variances

The document contains a graded assignment with 8 practice problems involving probabilities, means, variances, and standard deviations. The problems cover topics like computing probabilities from tree diagrams, expected values, transformations of random variables, and combining random variables.

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Christian Koch
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739 views3 pages

Computing Means and Variances

The document contains a graded assignment with 8 practice problems involving probabilities, means, variances, and standard deviations. The problems cover topics like computing probabilities from tree diagrams, expected values, transformations of random variables, and combining random variables.

Uploaded by

Christian Koch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Graded Assignment MTH510A: AP Statistics | Unit 5 | 5.

5 Practice 2

Practice
Assignment: Computing Means and Variances

1. You're taking a multiple-choice exam and you don't know the answers to two of the questions.
Each question has four choices, so the probability of getting a question right by guessing is
.25. Draw a tree diagram showing the probabilities of getting none, one, or both questions
right by guessing. (3 points)

0.25 Right 0.125


Question
0.5 1 Wrong 0.375
0.75
0.125

Question 0.25 Right 0.125


0.5
2
0.75 Wrong 0.375
0.125

P(none right) = 0.375 + 0.375


P(none right) = 0.75 or 75%

P(one right) = 0.125 + 0.375


P(one right) = 0.5

P(both right) = 0.125 + 0.125


P(both right) = 0.25

2. Using the tree diagram you just constructed and make a table showing the probability
distribution of getting zero, one, or both questions right by guessing. (3 points)

x 0 1 2

P(x) 0.75 0.5 0.25

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Graded Assignment MTH510A: AP Statistics | Unit 5 | 5.5 Practice 2
3. Find the expected value of the number of questions you'd get right by guessing.
What are the variance and standard deviation? (3 points)

E(x) = (0 x 0.75) + (1 x 0.5) + (2 x 0.25)


E(x) = 0.5

𝜎2 = 𝑃1 (𝑥1 − 𝜇)2 + 𝑃2 (𝑥2 − 𝜇)2 + 𝑃3 (𝑥3 − 𝜇)2


𝜎2 = 0.75(0 − 0.5)2 + 0.5(1 − 0.5)2 + 0.25(2 − 0.5)2
𝜎2 = 0.1875 + 0.125 + 0.5625
𝜎2 = 0.875

𝜎 = 0.935

4. Let's say that for one of the two questions you can narrow the answer choices down to
three. Now your chance of getting that question right by guessing is about .33. What is the
new expected value for the number of questions you'd get right by guessing? What are the
new variance and standard deviation of this random variable? Drawing another tree diagram
and making another probability distribution table may help you answer this question. (3
points)

0.33 Right 0.165


Question
0.5 1 Wrong 0.33
0.67
0.125

Question 0.25 Right 0.125


0.5
2
0.75 Wrong 0.375
0.125

x 0 1 2

P(x) 0.705 0.54 0.29

E(x) = (0 x 0.705) + (1 x 0.54) + (2 x 0.29)


E(x) = 1.12

𝜎 2 = 1.11

𝜎 = 1.054

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Graded Assignment MTH510A: AP Statistics | Unit 5 | 5.5 Practice 2
5. You have a continuous random variable X, for which the mean µ equals 2.71. You apply the
transformation X* = 5 – 3X to the values of the random variable. What is the mean of the
transformed variable? (3 points)

𝜇𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = a+b𝜇𝑥
𝜇𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = 5 – 3(2.71)
𝜇𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = -3.13

6. The variance for the same random variable from question 5 is 1.22. After applying the
transformation from question 5, what is the new variance? What is the standard deviation
of the transformed random variable? (3 points)

𝜎 2 𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = 𝑏 2 𝜎𝑥
𝜎 2 𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = -32 (1.22)
𝜎 2 𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = 10.98

𝜎𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = √𝜎2𝑎+𝑏𝑥

𝜎𝑎+𝑏𝑥 = 3.313

7. Your friend has two jobs. She works a different number of hours each week, so her paycheck
for each job is different from week to week. Her average weekly paycheck is $110 for job one
and $75 for job two. What is her average weekly income if these are her only jobs? (3.5 points)

𝜇𝑥+𝑦 = 𝜇𝑥 + 𝜇𝑦
𝜇𝑥+𝑦 = 110 + 75
𝜇𝑥+𝑦 = $185

8. Your friend's parents each have a job. Her mother's average weekly salary is $740 with a
standard deviation of $43. Her father's average weekly salary is $535, with a standard
deviation of $25. Find the average weekly salary of her parents combined, and the standard
deviation of their combined salaries. You can assume that the amount of money her mother
makes has no effect on her father's salary, and vice versa. (3.5 points)
𝜇𝑥+𝑦 = 𝜇𝑥 + 𝜇𝑦
𝜇𝑥+𝑦 = 740 + 535
𝜇𝑥+𝑦 = $1,275

𝜎𝑥+𝑦 = √𝜎2𝑥 + 𝜎2𝑦


𝜎𝑥+𝑦 = √1,849 + 625
𝜎𝑥+𝑦 = $49.74

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Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited.

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