Scribd
Upload
1 views

Set-3

Questions for probability for engineering

Uploaded by

harshgupta5700
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
1 views

Set-3

Questions for probability for engineering

Uploaded by

harshgupta5700
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

CE 463 Probabilistic and Statistical Methods in Civil Engineering (S2)

September 06, 2024

Practice Problems

1. The joint probability density function of two random variables X and Y can be expressed as

𝑓 , (𝑥, 𝑦) = 𝑐𝑒 for 0 ≤ 𝑥 < 1 and 0 ≤ 𝑦 < 2


=0 elsewhere

a. Calculate the value of constant c


b. Determine marginal density functions for X and Y
c. Are X and Y statistically independent? If not, calculate the value of correlation
coefficient.
d. Determine the probability, 𝑃(𝑋 ≤ 0.5|𝑌 = 1)

2. Five cylindrical tanks are used to store oil (one of them is shown in Figure 1). The weight
(W) of each tank (with contains) is 200 kips. When subjected to an earthquake, the
W
horizontal inertial force may be calculated as F  a , where g = acceleration of gravity
g
2
= 32.2 ft/sec and a = maximum horizontal acceleration of the earthquake ground motion.

Figure 1

During an earthquake, the frictional force at the base of a tank keeps it from sliding. The
coefficient of friction between the tank and the base support is a lognormal variate with a
median value of 0.40 and a coefficient of variation of 0.20. Also, during an earthquake
assume that the maximum ground acceleration is a lognormal variate with a mean of 0.30g
and a coefficient of variation of 0.25%.
(a) What is the probability that during an earthquake a tank will slide from its base support?
(b) Of the five tanks, what is the probability that none of them will slide during an
earthquake, assuming that the conditions between the tanks are statistically
independent?

3. A contractor submits bids to three highway jobs and two building jobs. The probability of
winning each job is 0.6. The profit from a highway job is normally distributed as N(100,
40) in thousand dollars, whereas that for a building job is N(80, 20) in thousand dollars.
Assume that winning each job is an independent event and the profits between jobs are also
statistically independent.

(a) What is the probability that the contractor will win at least two jobs?
(b) What is the probability that he will win exactly one highway job but none of the building
jobs?

Page 1 of 2
(c) Suppose he has won two highway jobs and one building job. What is the probability
that the total profit will exceed 300 thousand dollars?
(d) How would the answer in part (c) change if the profit from the two highway jobs are
correlated with a correlation coefficient of 0.8?

4. A shuttle bus operates from a shopping center, travels to owns A and B sequentially, and
then returns to the shopping center as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Assume that the respective travel times (under normal traffic) are independent Gaussian
random variables with the following statistics:

However, during rush hours (8:00-10:00 AM and 4:00-6:00 PM), the mean travel time
between Town A and Town B will increase by 50% with the same for their coefficient of
variation.
(a) The scheduled time for one round trip of the shuttle bus is 2 hours. Determine the
probability that a round trip will not be completed on schedule under normal traffic.
(b) What is the probability that a passenger, originating in Town A, will arrive at the
shopping center within 1 hour under normal traffic?
(c) The number of passengers originating from Town B is twice that of the number
originating from Town A. Calculate the percentage of the passengers originated from
both Town A and B will arrive at the shopping center during rush hours in less than 1
hour.
(d) A passenger starting from Town B has an appointment at 3:00 PM at the shopping
center. If the bus left Town B at 2:00 PM but has not arrived at the shopping center at
2:45 PM, what is the probability that he or she will arrive on time for his/her
appointment?

Page 2 of 2

You might also like