Probability Distribution

1. A random committee of size 3 is selected from 4 men and 2 women. If X represents the men on
the committee, then find (2 ≤ ≤ 3).
(a) 1⁄2 (b) 1⁄4 (c) 4⁄5 (d) 3⁄5
2-3
From a lot of 12 missiles, 5 are selected at random and fired. If the lot contains 3 defective
missiles, what is the probability that:
2. all 5 will fire?
(a) 0.039 (b) 0.159 (c) 0.312 (d) 0.588
3. at most 2 will not fire?
(a) 9⁄11 (b) 19⁄22 (c) 10⁄11 (d) 21⁄22
4. A box contains 3 green balls, 2 blue balls, and 4 red balls. Five balls are selected at random. Find
the probability that both blue balls and at least 1 red ball are selected?
(a) 16⁄63 (b) 17⁄63 (c) 18⁄63 (d) 19⁄63
5-6.
A student club lists as its members 2 Fundamentals level, 3 Graduate level, 5 Certificate level and
2 Chartered level students. A committee of 4 is selected at random, calculate the probability that:
5. all stages are represented.
(a) 1⁄11 (b) 2⁄33 (c) 4⁄33 (d) 5⁄33
6. all stages excepts the Certificate level are represented.
(a) 8⁄165 (b) 2⁄33 (c) 1⁄55 (d) 2⁄55
7. A baseball player’s batting average is 0.25. What is the probability that he gets exactly one hit in
his next 5 times at bat?
(a) 0.079 (b) 0.143 (c) 0.395 (d) 0.552
8. The probability that a patient a recovers from a delicate heart operation is 0.9. What is the
probability that exactly 5 of the next 7 patients having this operation survive?
(a) 0.062 (b) 0.124 (c) 0.496 (d) 0.673
9. A test contains 10 true-false questions. To pass the test a student must answer at least eight
questions correctly. If the student guesses at each question, what is the probability that the student
will pass the test?
(a) 0.055 (b) 0.08 (c) 0.8 (d) 0.20
10. The expected value (mean) of binomial distribution with parameters n and p is:

(a) (1 − ) (b) (1 − )
(c) (d) (1 − )

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11. The variance of binomial distribution with parameters n and p is:

(a) (1 − ) (b)

(c) (1 − ) (d)
12. What is the standard deviation of the number of recoveries among 48 patients when the
probability of recovery is 0.75?
(a) 3 (b) 9 (c) 36 (d) 81
13. What is the number of trials for a binomial distribution having mean and standard deviation 3 and
1.5 respectively?
(a) 6 (b) 12 (c) 24 (d) 36
14. The probability that a missile hitting a target is 1⁄8. If 10 missiles are fired, calculate the
probability that at least 2 will hit the target?
(a) 0.3612 (b) 0.6388 (c) 0.5560 (d) 0.881
15. Calculate the probability of getting 3 heads, if 6 coins are tossed simultaneously?
(a) 0.25 (b) 0.3125 (c) 0.5 (d) 0.6875
16. For a binomial distribution mean  20 , s.d  4 then , p  ?
(a) 4⁄5 (b) 3⁄5 (c) 2⁄5 (d) 1⁄5
x
17-18. For a binomial distribution, P(x) = 10Cx (0.5)x (0.5)10  ,where x  1, 2, 3,.......8
17. The average value is:
(a) 0.5 (b) 5 (c) 50 (d) 500
18. The standard deviation is:
(a) 1.58 (b) 2.5 (c) 3.5 (d) 4.0
19. For a binomial distribution, the relationship between mean and its variance is:
(a) μ  2 (b) μ  2 (c) μ  2 (d) none of these
20. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a binomial distribution?
(a) for every trial, the probability of success is the same.
(b) fhe random variable has only two possible outcomes.
(c) fhe number of trials is fixed.
(d) the outcome of any trial is dependent on the outcomes of previous trials.
21. Which of the following statements is true about a probability distribution?
(a) a probability distribution summarizes all possible experimental outcomes and their
probability.
(b) a probability distribution equals one.

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 (c) a continuous probability distribution is used to summarize a discrete random variable.
(d) a probability distribution shows the frequency distribution of a random variable.
22. Which of the following is not a requirement of a binomial distribution?
(a) a constant probability of success
(b) only two possible outcomes
(c) a fixed number of trials
(d) equally likely outcomes
23. In a continuous probability distribution:
(a) only certain outcomes are possible
(b) the values of random variable lies within a certain range
(c) the sum of the outcomes is greater than 1
(d) none of the above
24. For a binomial distribution:
(a) n must assume a number between 1 and 20 or 25

(b) p must be a multiple of 0.10

(c) there must be at least 3 possible outcomes
(d) none of the above
25. Assume that the birth of boys and girls are equally likely, and that the birth of any child does not
affect the probability of the gender of any other children. Find the probability of exactly five boys
in ten births.
(a) 0.05 (b) 0.246 (c) 7.875 (d) 0.5
26. A discrete random variable has a mean of 400 and a variance of 64. Compute the standard
deviation.
(a) 64 (b) 8 (c) 20 (d) 400
27. In raffle, 1000 tickets are sold for $2 each. One ticket will be randomly selected and the winner
will receive a laptop computer worth $1200. What is the expected value for a person that buys
one ticket?
(a) − $0.80 (b) $1.20 (c) − $1.20 (d) $0.80
28-30.
500 families were interviewed and the number of children per family was determined. The data
were summarized as follows:
Number of children per family (X) 0 1 2 3
Number of families 55 k 315 50

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28. Find the value of k.
(a) 1 (b) 185 (c) 80 (d) 420
29. What is the total number of children included in this study? (total children in the 500 families)
(a) 80 (b) 500 (c) 420 (d) 860
30. If you randomly select a family from the 500 families interviewed, what is the probability that
the selected family has 3 children?
(a) 0.03 (b) 0.06 (c) 0.50 (d) 0.10
31. Suppose 60% of a large group of people is infected with a particular disease. Let X = the number
of non- infected people in a sample of size 5. The distribution of X is
(a) binomial with n  5 and p  0.6 (b) binomial with n  5 and p  0.4
(c) binomial with n  5 and p  0.5 (d) Poisson with   0.6
32. Which of the following best describes the expected value of a discrete random variable?
(a) it is the middle value of all possible outcomes
(b) it is the weighted average over all possible outcomes.
(c) it is the simple average over all possible outcomes
(d) none of the above
33. Whenever p  0.9 and n  10, the mean of the binomial random variable will be
(a) 0.9 (b) 10 (c) 9 (d) 0.95
34-36.
The random variable X has the following distribution:

X 1 2 4 10
P(X) 0.3 0.2 0.2 ?

34. Find P(X = 10)

(a) 0.2 (b) 0.5 (c) 0.3 (d) 0.1
35. the mean and standard deviation of X are, respectively,
(a) 1.5 , 14.05 (b) 4.5 , 14.05 (c) 4.5 , 3.75 (d) 0 , 3.0
36. find the probability that X exceeds 2.
(a) 0 (b) 0.7 (c) 0.2 (d) 0.5
37. A class consists of 45 students. Ten of these students received an "A" for the final exam. Five
students are selected at random from this group. What is the probability that at least one of the
five students selected received an "A" for the final exam?
(a) 0.6993 (b) 0.7343 (c) 0.2657 (d) 0.2675

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 !
38. For the probability distribution: P(x)  (0.7) (0.3) , x  0, 1, 2, …..5; Find the
!( )!
mean of the random variable x.
(a) 5 (b) 35 (c) 3.5 (d) 1.5
39. A new treatment is developed. It is said that the probability of a randomly selected patient being
cured by this treatment is 0.75. If 5 patients receive this treatment, what is the probability that at
least 4 of them will be cured?
(a) 0.3955 (b) 0.6328 (c) 0.2373 (d) 0.800
40. A company has bought 20 machines from a manufacturer. The manufacturer advises them that 8
of these machines have a defect. They take a random sample of 5 machines. What is the
probability that exactly 2 of the machines in the sample have a defect?
(a) 0.400 (b) 0.148 (c) 0.297 (d) 0.397
41. For a binomial distribution:
(a) n must assume a number between 1 and 20;
(b) p must be multiple of 0.10;
(c) there must be at least 3 possible outcomes;
(d) none of the above.
42. A multiple choice test has 20 questions, with each question having 5 possible answers. A student
randomly guesses the answer of each question. What is the probability that the student will
answer all 20 questions correctly?

(a) (b) (c) (d)

43. When sampling without replacement from a finite population, the data follows:
(a) a normal distribution (b) a binomial distribution
(c) a Poisson distribution (d) a hypergeometric distribution
44. A particular company has twenty salespeople. In how many ways can a group of three
salespeople be selected from this company?
(a) 8000 (b) 6840 (c) 5700 (d) 1140
45. Which of the following is NOT true concerning discrete probability distribution?
(a) the probability of any specific value is between 0 and 1, inclusive.
(b) the mean of the distribution is between the smallest and largest value of the discrete
random variable.
(c) the sum of all probabilities is 1.
(d) the standard deviation of the distribution is between −1 and 1.
(e) the distribution may be displayed using a probability histogram.

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46. A business evaluates a proposed venture as follows. It stands to make a profit of Rs 10,000 with
probability 3⁄20, to make profit of Rs 5,000 with probability 9⁄20, to break even with probability
1⁄4 and to lose Rs 5,000 with probability 3⁄20. The expected profit is:
(a) Rs 3000 (b) Rs 1500 (c) Rs 3250 (d) − Rs 1500

47. An analyst estimates that a stock has the following probabilities of return depending on the state
of the economy:
Economy Return Probability
Good 15% 0.1
Normal 13% 0.6
Poor 7% 0.3
The expected return of the stock is:
(a) 7.8% (b) 11.4% (c) 11.7% (d) 13.0%
48. Which of the following statements is true for a continuous random variable X?
(a) P(X  c)  0 for any constant c (b) P(X  c)  0 only for c  0
(c) the total area under the curve equals one (d) only (a) and (c)
49. Which of the following is NOT an assumption of the binomial experiment?
(a) all trials must be identical and independent
(b) each trial outcomes must be classified as a success or a failure
(c) the probability of success is equal to 0.5 in all trials
(d) the number of successes in the trials is counted.
50. The probability that a certain machine will produce a defective item is 0.20. If a random sample
of 6 items is taken, what is the probability that there will be 5 or more defectives in the sample?
(a) 0.0016 (b) 0.0154 (c) 0.2458 (d) 0.0001
51-52.
According to a survey, 75% of all customers will return to the same grocery store. Eight
customers are selected at random:
51. what is the probability that exactly five of the customers will return?
(a) 0.0467 (b) 0.2076 (c) 0.2541 (d) 0.1468
52. how many customers would be expected to return to the same store?
(a) 8 (b) 5 (c) 6 (d) 7
53. Mr. Ajaz randomly selects three new teaching assistants from a total of 10 applicants, six male
and four female students. The probability that no females are hired is:
(a) 0.2500 (b) 0.333 (c) 0.200 (d) 0.1667

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54. If a person rolls doubles when tossing two dice, the roller profit is Rs 95. If the game is fair, how
much should the person pay to play the game?
(a) Rs 95 (b) Rs 94 (c) Rs 19 (d) Rs 92
55. Under what conditions do the binomial and Poisson distributions give approximately the same
results?
(a) when p and q are equal
(b) when p is small and n is large
(c) when p is small and n is large
(d) When p and q are equal and n is small
56. An airline estimates that 91% of people booked on their flights actually show up. If the air line
books 80 people on a flight for which the maximum seats are 78, then what is the probability that
the number of people who show up will exceed the capacity of the plane?
(a) 0.0047 (b) 0.0042 (c) 0.0005 (d) 0.0211
57. A company manufactures batteries in batches of 20, with 3% defective rates. The variance for
number of defects per batch is:
(a) 0.582 (b) 0.6 (c) 6 (d) 0.76
58. Selecting 4 marbles from a box containing 40 marbles (20 purple, 12 red and 8 green) one at a
time, without replacement, keeping the track of number of red marbles. This procedure is:
(a) not binomial, there are too many trials
(b) not binomial, there are more than two outcomes for each trial
(c) not binomial, the trials are not independent
(d) the procedure results in a binomial distribution.
Answers:
1. (c) 2. (b) 3. (d) 4. (b)
5. (c) 6. (a) 7. (c) 8. (b)
9. (a) 10. (c) 11. (d) 12. (a)
13. (a) 14. (a) 15. (b) 16. (d)
17. (b) 18. (a) 19. (c) 20. (d)
21. (a) 22. (d) 23. (b) 24. (d)
25. (b) 26. (b) 27. (a) 28. (c)
29. (d) 30. (d) 31. (b) 32. (b)
33. (c) 34. (c) 35. (c) 36. (d)
37. (b) 38. (c) 39. (b) 40. (d)
41. (d) 42. (b) 43. (d) 44. (d)
45. (d) 46. (a) 47. (b) 48. (d)
49. (c) 50. (a) 51. (b) 52. (c)
53. (d) 54. (c) 55. (b) 56. (a)
57. (a) 58. (c)

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