Chapter 5 Practice Exercises Discrete and Binomial Distributions (Ch.5) With Answer Key
Chapter 5 Practice Exercises Discrete and Binomial Distributions (Ch.5) With Answer Key
5)
Discrete probability distributions
and the Binomial probability distribution
1) The peak shopping time at home improvement store is between 8:00am -11:00 am on
Saturday mornings. Management at the home improvement store randomly selected
115 customers last Saturday morning and decided to observe their shopping habits.
They recorded the number of items that each of the customers purchased as well as the
total time the customers spent in the store. Identify the types of variables recorded by
the home improvement store.
A) number of items - discrete; total time - continuous
B) number of items - continuous; total time - continuous
C) number of items - continuous; total time - discrete
D) number of items - discrete; total time – discrete
2) A random variable is
A) a numerical measure of the outcome of a probability experiment.
B) generated by a random number table.
C) the variable for which an algebraic equation is solved.
D) a qualitative attribute of a population.
3) Given the table of probabilities for the random variable x, does this form a probability
distribution? Answer Yes or No.
x 5 10 15 20
A)No B)Yes
4) Consider the discrete probability distribution to the right when answering the
following question. Find the probability that x exceeds 5.
x 3 5 7 8
P(x) 0.26 ? 0.02 0.28
A) 0.3 B) 0.74 C) 0.7 D) 0.44
5) The random variable x represents the number of boys in a family of three children.
Assuming that boys and girls are equally likely, (a) construct a probability distribution,
(b) graph the probability distribution, and (c) find the mean and standard deviation for
the random variable x.
S = {GGG,BBG,GGB,GBG,BGB,BBB,BGG,GBB}
1
6) For each of the following random variables, indicate whether the variable is discrete or
continuous, and specify the possible values that it can assume.
a. discrete; x = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . .
b. Continuous ; ̶ ꝏ < x < ꝏ
c. continuous; x ≥ 0
d. discrete; x = 0, 1, 2, . . . , 10
e. continuous; x > 0
7) The probability distribution of a discrete random variable X is shown below, where X represents
the number of cars owned by a family.
x 0 1 2 3
a. P(X > 1)
b. P(X 2)
c. P(1 X 2)
d. P(0 < X < 1)
e. P(1 X < 3)
ANS:
a. 0.35
b. 0.85
c. 0.60
d. 0.00
e. 0.60
2
b. Each trial results in two or more outcomes.
c. The trials are independent of each other.
d. The probability of success p is the same from one trial to another.
ANS: B
9) The expected number of heads in 100 tosses of an unbiased coin is
a.25
b.50
c.75
d.100
ANS: B
10) Which of the following about the binomial distribution is not a true statement?
a. The probability of success must be constant from trial to trial.
b. Each outcome is independent of the other.
c. Each outcome may be classified as either "success" or "failure".
d. The random variable of interest is continuous.
ANS: D
11) If n= 20 and p = 0.70, then the standard deviation of the binomial distribution is
a.0.14
b.2.05
c.14.0
d.14.7
ANS: B
TRUE / FALSE
12) The expected number of heads in 250 tosses of an unbiased coin is 125.
ANS: T
13) If the probability of success p remains constant in a binomial distribution, an increase in
n will increase the variance.
ANS: T
14) The number of customers arriving at a department store in a 5-minute period has a
binomial distribution.
ANS: F
15) The number of female customers out of a random sample of 100 customers arriving at a
department store has a binomial distribution.
ANS: T
16) If the probability of success p remains constant in a binomial distribution, an increase in
n will not change the mean.
ANS: F
17) Suppose that past history shows that 5% of college students are smokers. A sample of
10 students is to be selected.
a) Find the probability that exactly 1 student is a smoker. 0.315
b) Find the probability that at least 1 student is a smoker. 0.401
c) Find the probability that less than 1 student is a smoker. 0.599
d) Find the probability that at most 1 student is a smoker. 0.914
e) Find the probability that more than 1 student is a smoker. 0.086
3
f) A sample of 100 students is to be selected. What is the average number that you would
expect to smoke? 5
g) A sample of 100 students is to be selected. What is the standard deviation of the
number of smokers you expect? 2.18