Chapter 5 Lecture 1

Probability Distributions
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction: In random experiments, we are interested in the numerical outcomes i.e.,
numbers associated with the outcomes of the experiment. For example, when 50 coins are
tossed, we ask for the number of heads. Whenever we associate a real number with each
outcome of trial, we are dealing with a function whose range is the set of real numbers we ask
for such a function is called a random variable (r. v.) chance variable, stochastic variable or
simply a variable.

Definition: Quantities which vary with some probability are called random variables.

Definition: By a random variable we mean a real number associated with the outcomes of a
random experiment.

Example: Suppose two coins are tossed simultaneously then the sample space is
S= {HH, HT, TH, TT}. Let X denote the number of heads, then if X = 0 then the outcome is
{TT} and P(X = 0) = .

If X takes the value 1, then outcome is {HT, TH} and P(X = 1) = . Next if X takes the

value 2 then the outcome is {HH} and P(X = 2) = .The probability distribution of this
random variable X is given by the following table:
X=x 0 1 2 Total
P(X = x ) 1

Example: out of 24 mangoes 6 are rotten, 2 mangoes are drawn. Obtain the probability
distribution of the number of rotten mangoes that can be drawn:
Let X denote the number of rotten mangoes drawn then X can take values 0, 1, 2.

and

X=x 0 1 2 Total
 P(X = x ) 1

Types of Random Variables:

There are two types of random variables:

(i) Discrete random variables (ii) Continuous random variables

Distribution function: Let X be a one-dimensional random variable. The function F defined

for all x, by the equation F(x) = P(X  x) is called the cumulative distribution function of X.

Note: 1. We write c. d. f. For cumulative distribution function. Only d. f is written instead of

c. d. f.
Note 2: suffix X in F is used to emphasize the fact that the distribution function is
associated qith the particular valuiate X. when the particular underlying variate is clear from
the context, we shall simply write F(x) insea of F(x).

Note 3: tail events let ‘x’ be any real number then the events |X < x | and |X> x|. |X  x| are
called tail events. For distinction, we may label them open, closed, upper and lower tails.
Often, simple r.v.’s are expanded as linear combination of tail events.

Some Properties of a c. d. f.:

1. P{a < X  b} = F(b) – F(a) Interval property

2. 0  F(x)  1,  x  R Boundedness property

3. F is non-decreasing i.e., if x  y, then F(x)  F(y) Monotone increasing property

4. F(-) = 0, F(+) = 1 i.e.,

Lim F(xn) = 0 as n - ; Lim F(xn) = 0 as n  Limits property

5. F is continuous from the right each point Right continuous property

i.e., F(a+) = F(a)
F(a+) – F(-a) = P(X = a) Jump discontinuity

Conditions (3),(4) and (5) are necessary as well as sufficient for F to be c.d.f. on R.
Problem 1: Give reasons why each of the graphs of F given below does not represent a
distribution function.
y=F(x) y=F(x)
y=1 y=1

0 0

(a) (b)

y=F(x) y=F(x)
y=1 y=1

x=k

0 (c) 0 (d)

Solution: (a) F(x) < 0 – ve for some x (b) F(x) > 1for some x
( c) F is non-decreasing i.e., some times F is decreasing also
( d )F is not right continuous at x = k infact it is left continuous.

Definition: Discrete Random variables:

Quantities which are capable of taking only integral values are called discrete random
variables.

Example: The number of children in a family of a colony.

Example: The number of rooms in the houses of a township.

Probability mass function: Probability distribution

Definition: Let X be a discrete random variable taking value x, x = 0, 1, 2, 3, .... then P(X =
x) is called the probability mass function of X and it satisfies the following ( i ) P(X = x) 
0
( ii )

Definition: Discrete distribution function:

A r. v. X is said to be discrete, if there exist a countable number of points x 1, x2, x3, . . . and

number p(xi)  0, such that .

Definition: Finite equiprobable space ( Uniform space)

A finite equiprobable space is finite probability distribution where each sample point x 1, x2,
x3, . . .xn has the same probability for all i

i.e., P(X = xi) = pi = a constant for all i and .

Chapter 6 Probability Distributions Tutorial 1

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem 1: Show that the average of the deviations of a variate about its mean is zero and
sum of the squared deviations is minimum when they are taken about the mean.

[Ans. A=

Problem 2: A random variable X has the following probability distribution:

x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
P(x) k 3k 5k 7k 9k 11k 13k 15k 17k
(a) Determine the value of k
(b) find P(X < 4), P(X  5), P(0 < x < 4)
(c) find the c.d.f.
(d) find the smallest value of x for which P(X  x) < 0.5
[Ans. k=

Problem 3:Given the discrete random variable X has mass function.

Describe and graph its cumulative distribution

function, F(x). [Ans. 1/6,2/6

and 3/6]
Problem 4: If is a probability mass function, find F(x), the
cumulative distribution function and sketch its graph. [Ans.

Problem 5: A random variables X has the following probability function.

X=x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
P(X= x) 0 K 2k 2k 3k k2 2k2 7k2+1

(i) Find the value of k

(ii) P(X  5), P(X > 5), P(X < 6), P(X  6)
(iii) P(0 < X < 6), P(0 < X < 5) [Ans. (i) k= - 1, ; (ii) 0.81, 0.19 (iii)
0.81,0.8]

Chapter 7 Probability Distributions Tutorial 2

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem 1:A random variable X takes values 0, 1, 2 , 3, 4, . . . . with probability proportional

to (x+1) [Ans.

0.9997]

Problems 2: A random variable X has the following probability function:

Value of x -2 -1 0 1 2 3
P(x) 0.1 k 0.2 2k 0.3 K
(i) Find the value of k, and calculate mean and variance.
(ii) Construct the c.d.f. F(x) and draw its graph.
[Ans. (i). 0.1,0.8 and 2.16 (ii). F(x) = 0.1,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.9,1.0]

Problem 3: If a variable X assumes three values 0, 1, 2 with probabilities

respectively, find the c.d.f. of X and show that P(X  1) = .

Problem 4: A random variable X assumes the values -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 such that P(X > 0) =
P(X = 0); P(X< -3) = P(X = - 2) = P(X = -1); P(X = 1) = P(X = 2) = P(X = 3) write down the
distribution of X and show that P(X  3) = .
Definition: Expectation: The behaviour of r.v. either discrete or continuous is completely
characterized by the distribution function F(x) or density f(x)[ P(xi) in discrete case . instead
of a function, a more compact description can be made by a single numbers such as mean
(expectation), median and mode known as measures of central tendency of the r.v. X.

Expectation or median or expected value of a r.v. X denoted by E[X or , is defined as

Definition: Variance: variance characterizes the variablility in the distributions, since two
distributions with same mean can still have different dispersion of data about their means,
Variance of r.v. X is for X discrete

for X is continuous.

Definition: Standard Deviation: standard deviation denoted by  (S.D.) is the positive square root
of variance.


E(X2) - 2.  2.1  E(X2) - 2

since  xf(x), f(x)1.
 Chapter 7 Lecture 2

Probability Density function (p. d. f)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let X be a continuous random variable taking value x, a  x  b then f9x) = P(X = x) is
defined as the p. d. f. of X and satisfies the following

(i) ( ii) .

Note: 1. For a continuous variate, point probabilities are zero.

2. Area under the probability curve y = f(x) is unity; the fact implies the
graph f(x) is above x –axis.
3. Area under the probability curve y = f(x) bounded by x = a, x = b is simply
P(a  x  b ).
4. Relation between p. d. f. and c. d. f.: The density and c. d. f. F are always

connected by (a) (b)

Moments: If the range of the probability density function is from -  to , the rth moment
about origin is defined as .

The r th moment about any arbitrary origin ‘a’ is

The mean is given by (taking moment about x = 0)

The variance 2 is given by

Jointly Distributed Random Variables:

Introduction: When the outcome of a random experiment can be characterized in more than
one way, the probability density is a function of more than one variate.

Example: When a card is drawn from an ordinary deck, it may be characterized according to
its suit in some order viz., say clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades and Y be a variate that
assumes the values 1, 2, 3, . . ., 13 which correspond to the denominations: Ace, 2, 3, . . ., 10,
J, Q, K. Then (X, Y) is a 2 – dimensional variate. The probability of drawing a particular card
will be denoted by f(x, y) and if each card is equi-probable of being drawn, the density of
(X, Y) is

Trails whose outcomes can be characterized by two (three) variates give rise to bivariate (tri-
variate) distributions etc. Extensions to n-variate distributions are fairly straight forward.

We study about the types of Distribution Functions as mentioned below:

- Joint distribution function - properties

- Joint discrete distribution function

- Individual or Marginal Probability functions

- Bivariate Probability distribution function

- Conditional proability functions

- Some properties of Joint density

- Individual or Marginal distribution functions

- Conditional distribution function

Joint distribution Function and its properties:

Let (X, Y) be a random vector or random variable on the probability space. The joint c. d. f.
of X and Y is denoted by FX, Y and is defined by FX, Y(x, y) = P(X≤ x, Y ≤ y), x, y  R.

F X ,Y ( x , y )
S Probability F(X, Y) c.d.f.

 P( X Space
x, YS  y )
(X, Y)

Fig.

A joint c. d. f. of two variates has the following properties:

1. Non-negativity and Boundedness:

0 ≤ FX, Y(x, y) ≤ 1, for every x, y  R.

2. Monotonicity: the c. d. f. “F” is monotonically non-decreasing function in each of the

individual variables, i.e., ( i ) F(a, y2) ≥ F(a, y1), if y2 ≥ y1 ( ii ) F(x2, b) ≥ F(x1, b), if x2 ≥ x1.

3. Rectangle rule: Let a, b, c, d be any real numbers with a < b and c < d.
Then, P(a < X ≤ b, c < Y ≤ d) = F(b, d) + F(a, c) – F(b, c) – F(a, d).

4. Individual limits: (i) Lim F(x, y) = F(- ∞, y) = 0 as n - ∞;(ii)

5. Double limit: i.e., F(∞,∞) = 1 formally.

Note: we don’t claim F(∞, y) = 1 or F(x, ∞) = 1.

6. Individual continuity: F is continuous from the right in each of its individual variables.
i.e., (i) , (ii)
7. If the density function f(x, y) is continuous at (x, y), then

Joint discrete Distribution Function:

Definition: The joint c. d. f. of X and Y is said to be discrete if there exists a non-negative

function P such that P vanishes everywhere except a finite or countably infinite number of
points in the plane and at such points (x, y)so that P(x, y) = P( X = x, Y = y), for all x, y  R.

Definition: Let X and Y have a joint discrete distribution. A function P with does not vanish
on the set {(xi, yi) such that I, j = 1, 2, 3, . . .} and satisfies the following properties:
(i) P(xi, yi) ≥ 0 for all I, j = 1, 2, 3, . . . . . . and (ii) is called joint
probability (mass) function of X and Y or simply the joint probability function.

Individual and Marginal Probability Functions:

Let X and Y be two jointly distributed variables with joint discrete density P(x, y), the
individual variates X and Y themselves are random variables.

The individual distributions of X and Y are called marginal distributions of X and Y

(i) The Marginal probability function for X is denoted by PX (x) or P(x) and is given by
P(x) = P(X = x) = =
(ii) The marginal probability function for Y is denoted by PY(y) and is given by
P(y) = P(Y = y) = = .
Note: It is convenient to display the probability function of a bivariate distribution in a
rectangular array, in which the row totals and column totals provide the marginal probability
functions of X and Y respectively.
y1 y2 y3 ... yj ... ym ... P(X= xi )
x y
x1 P11 P12 P13 ... P1j ... P1m ... P(x1)

x2 P21 P22 P23 ... P21 ... P2m ... P(x2)

x3 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
xi Pi1 Pi2 Pi3 ... Pij ... Pim ... P(xi)
 . . . . . . . . . .

xn Pn1 Pn2 Pn3 ... Pnj ... Pnm ... P(xn)

. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

P(Y = yi ) ... ... ...

P(y1) P(y2) P(y3) P(yj) P(ym) 1

We have here, Pij = P(X = xi, Y = yj) ; P(xj) = and P(yj) = .

Conditional Probability functions (cond. P. f.):

Let X and Y have joint discrete distribution with associated probability function P. Let the
possible values of X be {x1, x2, x3, . . .,xi, . . .} and those of Y be { y 1, y2, y3, . . .,yj, . . .}
respectively.

The conditional probability function of X, given Y = y j denotd by P

is defined by P = P(xi, yj)/PY(yj) for i = 1, 2, 3,

...
= 0 if PY(yj) = 0

The conditional probability function of Y, given X = x i denoted by P

is defined by P = P(xi, yj)/PX(xi) for j = 1, 2, 3, . . .

= 0 if PX(xi) = 0

Therefore, P(xi, yi) = P(X = xi, Y = yj) ; P(Y = yj) = PY(yj) and P(X = xi) = PX (xi)

Independent and dependent Random Variables:

Definition: Two random variables x and Y are called independent if for every pair of real
number “x” and “y”, the two events {X ≤ x} and {Y ≤ y} are independent. That is we can
express as P{ X ≤ x, Y ≤ y} = P{ X ≤ x} P{Y ≤ y} ------------------------------------------ (1)

Condition (1) in terms of distribution functions is F(x, y) = F X (x) FY (y)-------------------(2)

and also [if densities exists]-----------------------------------------------
(3)
Conversely, if (2) or (3) is true, then (1) follows.

Definition: dependent Variates: Variates which are not independent are called dependent
variates or dependent random variables.
Definition: continuous random Variates: A 2-dimensional random vector (X, Y) is called
a continuous random vector if there exists a function f(x, y) ≥ 0 such that for - ∞ < x, y < ∞,

the c. d. f. of (X, Y) given by is continuous. The function

f(x, y) is called the joint p. d. f of (X, Y).

Some properties of joint density: Let f(x, y) ≥ 0 be the joint p. d. f of continuous random
vector (X, Y) and F(x, y) be the c. d. f. of (X, Y) then it holds the following properties:

(i) (ii) P{ a < X ≤ b, c < Y ≤ d} =

(iii)

Individual or Marginal Distributions: Let (X, Y) be a continuous random vector with joint

c. d. f. “F” and joint p. d. f. “f”. Then F(x, y) = P(X  x, Y  y) = .

Definition: Let (X, Y) be a 2-dimesnional continuous random vector with joint p. d. f. f(x,
y). Then the individual or marginal distribution of X and Y are defined by the p. d. f.’ s
and .

On observation, we have .

Conditional Distribution Function: The conditional c. d. f. of a variate X, given Y = y,

written
------------------------------------------(1)
Provided that the limit in (1) exists.

The conditional p. d. f. of X given Y = y, written is a non-negative

function satisfying .
Note: The conditional p. d. f. f(x/y) is given by f X/Y(x/y) = f(x, y)/fY(y) where fY is the
marginal p. d. f. of Y, fY(y) > 0, and is continuous.
 Chapter 2 Lecture 3

Probability Distributions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mathematical Expectation:

Let X be a discrete random variable taking value x, x = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . . then the mathematical

expectation of X is denoted by E(x) [read it as expected value of X] and is defined as

Similarly if k is any positive integer then, .

Similarly if X is continuous random variable taking value x, - ∞  x  ∞ with f(x) as the
probability density function then and .

Definition: E(X) is also called mean or arithmetic mean of X denoted by µ.

Definition: If X is a random variable then the variance of X ise denoted by V(X) and is
defined as V(X) = E[(X – E(X))2].
This can be simplified as V(X) = E(X2) – [E(X)]2.
Notation: The variance is denoted by 2 = V(X).

Standard deviation: The positive square root of variance is defined as standard deviation and is
denoted by . Therefore, .

Theorem of Expectation of a sum and product:

Expectation of the sum of the random variables:

Theorem: The mathematical expectation of a sum of a number of random variables is equal to

the sum of their expectations.
Proof: follows
Expectation of the product of the random variables:
Theorem: The mathematical expectation of the product of a number of independent random
variates is equal to product of their expectations.

Theorem: The mathematical expectation of a sum of a number of random variables is equal to

the sum of their expectations.

Proof: Let us consider the random variables x and y. Let x assume the values x i for all I = 1, 2, 3,
. . .,m and y the values yj for all j = 1, 2, 3, . . . ,n with respective probabilities P i and Pj. The sum
x + y is a random variable which can take m n values,
xi + yj for i = 1,2,3,….,m
for j = 1,2,3,..…,n with probabilities Pij.

Hence its Expectation is

= E(x) + E(y)

 E(x + y) = E(x) + E(y)

Since and .
By generalization of the above theorem, we have

E(x1 + x2 +x3 + . . .+xn) = E(x1) + E(x2) + E(x3) . . . . .+ E(xn).

This completes the proof of the theorem.

Expectation of the product of the random variables:

Theorem: The mathematical expectation of the product of a number of independent random

variates is equal to product of their expectations.
Proof: Let us use the notation as
Since the variates are independent, by the law of compound probabilities we have

The theorem can be generalized for a number of independent random variates such that
E(x1. x2. x3 . . . . . xn) = E(x1) . E(x2) . E(x3) . . . . .. E(xn).
This completes proof of the theorem.
Note: E(x, y) = E(x) E(y) does not guarantee the independent of x and y.

One can easily verify that the following expectations:

(a) E(a) = a (b) E(aX) = a E(X) (c) E(aX ± bY) = aE(X) ± bE(Y)

(d) E(aX + b) = a E(X) + b (e ) V(a) = 0 (f) V(aX ± b) = a2 V(X)

(g) V(x) = E(x2) – [E(x)]2 (h) V(aX + bY) = a2 2X + b2Y + 2ab XY.
Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem 1: Two coins are tossed simultaneously. Let X denote the number of heads, Find E(X)
and V(X)?
Solution:
X=x 0 1 2 Total
P(X = x) 1

Mean:  = E(X) = 0. + 1. + 2. =1

Variance: 2 = V(X) = E(X2) – [E(X)]2

= 02. +12. + 22. - (1)2

= +1–1

=
Hence the solution.

Problem 2: If it rains, a dealer in rain coats earns Rs. 500/- per day and if it is fair, he loses
Rs.50/- per day. If the probability of a rainy day is 0.4. Find his average daily income?

Solution:
X=x 500 -50 Total
P(X = x) 0.4 0.6 1

Average = E(X) = 500 (0.4) + (-50) (0.6)

= 200 – 30
= Rs. 170/-

Hence the solution.

 Chapter 2 Lecture 4

Probability Distributions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Binomial Distribution:
This distribution was discovered by James Bernoulli. This is a discrete distribution. It occurs in
cases of repeated trials such as students writing an examination, births in a hospital etc. Here all
the trials are assumed to be independent and each trial has only two outcomes namely success
and failure.

Let an experiment consist of “n” independent trials. Let it succeed “x” times. Let “p” be the
probability of success and “q” be the probability of failure in each trial.

p+q=1
The probability of getting x successes = p.p.p............p(x times) = px

The probability of getting (n – x) failures = q.q.q...........q[(n – x) times] = q(n – x)

 From multiplication theorem, the probability of getting x successes and (n – x) failures is
px q(n – x).

This is the probability of getting x successes in one combination. There are such nCx mutually
exclusive combinations each with probability px q(n – x).

 From addition theorem the probability of getting x success in nCx px q(n – x).

Notation: b(x; n, p) denotes a binomial distribution with x successes, n trials and with p as
the probability of success.

 b(x; n, p) = nCx px q(n – x), x = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ., n.

Parameters of Binomial distribution:

In b(x; n, p) there are 3 constants viz., n, p and q. Since q = 1- p, hence there are only 2
independent constants namely n and p. These are called the parameters of binomial
distribution.
Note: since b(x; n, p) is same as the (x + 1) th term in the binomial expansion of (q + p) n,
hence this distribution is called the “Binomial Distribution”.

Mean of the Binomial distribution:

Put y = x – 1,  x = 1 + y

When x = 1 implies y = 0

x = 1 implies y = x – 1

So,  = np is Mean of Binomial distribution.

Variance of the Binomial Distribution:

Put y = x – 2 x=2+y

When x = 2 implies y = 0

When x = n imples y = n - 2
 The variance of binomial distribution is npq. The standard deviation is  = + .

Moments of Binomial distribution:

Mean

by definition

Consider


2 (variance) =
= n(n – 1) p2 + np – (np)2

[since, 1 – p = q]
 np > npq [since q is a fraction]

Mean > Variance

Similarly 3 = npq(1 – 2p)

Hence 1 =

When p = =q
Therefore 1 = 0

Case (i) when p = , 1 = 0

Case (ii) when n   then 1 = 0

Standard deviation =
Skewness =

Moment Generating Function of Binomial Distribution:

Let X be a variable following binomial distribution, then
M.G.F about Mean of binomial Distribution:

Since we have, a3+b3 = (a+b)(a2 – ab + b2) ; p3+q3 = (p + q)(p2 – pq + q2)

= (1)(p+q)2 – 3(pq) = (1 – 3pq)
Now 2 = coefficient of ; 3 = coefficient of ;

4 = coefficient of

Additive Property of Binomial Distribution:

Let X  b(n1, p1) and Y  b(n2, p2) be independent random variables.

Then ; what is distribution of X + Y

We have [ since X and Y are independent]

 = (q1 + p1 et)n1 (q2 + p2 et)n2

Since (2) cannot be expressed in the form (q + pe t)n , from uniqueness theorem of m.g.f it
follows that X + Y is not a binomial variate. Hence, in general the sum of two independent
binomial variates is not a binomial variate.

In other words, binomial distribution does not possess the additive or reproductive property.

However, if we take p1 = p2 = p say then from (2), we get

which is the m.g.f of a binomial variate with parameters (n1+n2, p). Hence, by uniqueness
theorem of m.g.f ‘s X + Y  b(n1+n2,p). Thus the binomial distribution possesses the
additive or reproductive property if p1 = p2.

Generalization: If Xi for all i = 1, 2, 3, . . . ,k then their sum

Recurrence Relation for the probabilities of Binomial Distribution:

(Fitting of Binomial Distribution)

We have and

 which is the required recurrence formula.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 4
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1: It has been claimed that in 60% of all solar heat installations the utility bills is
reduced by at least one third. Accordingly what are the probabilities that the
utility bill will be reduced by at least one third in (i) four or five installations (ii)
at least four of five installations?
Problem 2: Two coins are tossed simultaneously. Find the probability of getting at least
seven heads?

Problem 3: If 3 of 20 tyres are defective and 4 of them are randomly chosen for inspection.
What is the probability that only one of the defective tyres will be included?

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 4

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1: It has been claimed that in 60% of all solar heat installations the utility bills is
reduced by at least one third. Accordingly what ae the probabilities that the
utility bill will be reduced by at least one third in (i) four or five installations (ii)
at least four of five installations?
Solution: n = 5, p = 0.6, q = 1 – p = 0.4
(i) b(4; 5, 0.6) = 5C4 (0.6)4 (0.4)1 = 5(0.6)4(0.4) = 0.2592
(ii) at least 4 means 4 or 5
b(5; 5, 0.6) = 5C5 (0.6)5 (0.4)0 = 0.0778
 Probability in at least four installations = b(4; 5, 0.6) + b(5; 5, 0.6)
= 0.2592 + 0.0778=0.337
Hence the solution.

Problem 2: Two coins are tossed simultaneously. Find the probability of getting at least
seven heads?

Solution: n = 10, p = P(H) = ;q=1–p=

P(X  7) = P(X = 7) + P(X = 8) + P(X = 9) P(X = 10)
= 10C7(1C2)7 (1C2)3 + 10C8 (1C2)8 (1C2)2 + 10C9 (1C2)9 (1C2)1 + 10C10 (1C2)10 (1C2)0

= =

= =

= = 0.172

Hence the solution.

Problem 3: If 3 of 20 tyres are defective and 4 of them are randomly chosen for inspection.
What is the probability that only one of the defective tyres will be included?

Solution: n = 4, p = , q = 1- p =

P(x = 1) = 4C1 (p)1 (q)(4 - 1)

= 4

Hence the solution.

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 5
Binomial distribution --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1: Determine the binomial distribution for which the mean is four and variance
three. Also find its mode? [Ans.4.25or4]
Problem 2: If A and B play games of chess of which 6 are won by A, 4 are won by B and 2
end in draw. Find the probability that (i) A and B win alternatively (ii) B wins at least one
game (iii) Two games end in draw? [Ans.5/36,19/27,5/72]

Problem 3: If the probability that a person will not like a new tooth paste is 0.20. what is the
probability that 5 out of 10 randomly selected persons will dislike it? [Ans. 0.0264]

Problem 4: A shipment of 20 tape recorders contains 5 defectives find the standard deviation
of the probability distribution of the number of defectives in a sample of 10 randomly chosen
for inspection? [Ans,=

Problem 5: If A and B play game in which their chances of winning are in the ratio 3 : 2
Find A’s chance of winning at least three games out of the five games played? [Ans. 0.68]

Problem 6: A department has 10 machines which may need adjustment from time to time
during the day. Three of these machines are old, each having a probability of of needing

adjustment during the day and 7 are new, having corresponding probabilities of .
Assuming that no machine needs adjustments twice on the same day, determine the
probabilities that on a particular day. (i) just 2 old and no new machines need adjustment.
(ii) if just 2 machines need adjustment, they are of the same type. [Ans. 0.016;0.028]

Problem 7: An irregular six faced die is thrown and the probability exception that in 10
throws it will give five even numbers is twice, the probability expectation that it will give
four even numbers. How many times in 10000 sets of 10 throws each, would you expect it to
give no even number? [Ans. 1 approxly]

Problem 8: The mean of binomial distribution is 3 and variance is 4? [Ans. ]

Problem 9: The mean and variance of binomial distribution are 4 and respectively. Find
P(X  1)? [Ans.0.9983]

*********
Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 6
Binomial distribution --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 01: Find a binomial distribution for the following data and compare the theoretical
frequencies with the actual ones:
x: 0 1 2 3 4 5
 f: 2 14 20 34 22 8
[Ans.100(0.432 + 0.568)

Problem 02: The probability that a bomb dropped from a plane will strike the target is . If
six bombs are dropped, find the probability that (i) exactly two will strike the target, (ii) at
least two will strike the target. [Ans. (i) 0.246 (ii)0.345]

Problem 03: If the probability that a new-born child is a male is 0.6, find the probability that
in a family of 5 children there are exactly 3 boys? [Ans. 0.3456]

Problem 04: Find the probability of guessing correctly at least 6 of the 10 answers on a true-
false examination? [Ans. ]

Problem 05: Out of 800 families with 5 children each, how many would you expect to have
(i) 3 boys (ii) 5 girls and (iii) either 2 or 3 boys? Assuming that equal
probabilities for girls and boys. [Ans.(i)250 (ii) 25 (iii) 500]

Problem 06: If the probability of a defective bolt is 0.1, find (i) the mean and (ii) the
standard deviation for the distribution of defective bolts in a total of 400? [Ans. (i) 40 (ii) 6]

Problem 07: Find the probability that in five tosses of a fair die a 3 appears (i) at no times (ii)
four times? [Ans. (i) (ii) ]

Problem 08: Find the probability that in a family of 4 children there will be (i) at least 1 boy
and (ii) at least 1 boy and 1 girl? [Ans. (i) (ii) ]

Problem 09: Find the probability of getting at least 4 heads in 6 tosses of a fair coin?
[Ans. ]

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 7

Binomial distribution --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem 1: The following data due to Weldon shows the results of throwing 12 dice 4096
times, a throw of 4, 5 or 6 being called success (x).
X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
V - 7 60 198 430 731 948 847 536 257 71 11 -
Fit a Binomial distribution and calculate the expected frequency?

[Ans.

]
Problem 2: Fit a Binomial distribution to the following data and test for goodness of fit
X 0 1 2 3 4
F 28 62 46 10 4
[Ans.

Problem 3: In 256 sets of 12 tosses of a coin, in how many cases one can expect eitght
heads and 4 tails?
[Ans.P(X=8)=

Problem 4: The mean and variance of a binomial variate X with parameters “n” and p are 16
and 8. Find (i) p(X = 0) (ii) p(X = 1) and (iii) p(X  2).

[Ans. (i) p(X = 0) = 32C0 ; (ii) P(X = 1) = 32C1 ;

And (iii) P(X  2) = 1 – {32C0 +32C1 ]

Problem 5: Seven coins are tossed and the number of heads are noted. The experiment is
repeated 128 times and the following distribution is obtained:

No of heads 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
Frequencies 7 6 19 35 30 23 7 1 128

Fit a binomial distribution(B.D.) assuming (i) the coin is un biased

(ii) the nature of the coin is not known?

Chapter 2 Lecture 5
Chebyshev’s theorem Probability Distributions by N. V. Nagendram
Chebyshev’s theorem: Let X be a random variable with mean  and standard deviation 

then P(| x -  |  k)  .

Proof: Let f(x) be the probability mass function of a random variable having mean  and
variance 2.
Now ……………………………….(1)
Let R1 be the region in which x   - k, R2 the region in which  - k < x <  + k and R3
be the region in which x   + k.

x   - k  - k < x <  + k x   + k

R1 region R2 Region R3 Region

Values of x

………………………(2)
Since  0 i.e., non-negative, hence  0 also non-negative.

So equation (2) implies ……………………….

(3)
In R1 x   - k
 x -   k ……………………….(4)

In R3 x   + k
 x -   k ……………………….(5)

Equations (4) and (5)  | x -  |  k

Hence both R1 and R3,  k22.

 From (3) ……………………….(6)

i.e.,  ……………………...(7)

Now represents the probability assigned to the region R1  R3.

 = P[| x -  |  k] ……………………….(8)

 From equations (7) and (8)

This completes the proof of the theorem

Note:  .

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 8

Chebyshev’s theorem --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1: X is random variable such that E(X) = 3 and E(X 2) = 13. Determine a lower
bound for P( - 2 < x < 8), using Chebyshev ’s inequality? [Ans.  = 2; lower bound = ]
Problem 2: 500 articles were selected at random out of a batch containing 10000 articles and
30 were found to be defective. How many defective articles would you reasonably expect to
have in the whole batch? [Ans. E(X)=Np=10000X ]
Problem 3: A symmetric die is thrown 600 times. Find the lower bound for the probability of
getting 80 to 120 sixes? [Ans. P(80  x  120 = ]
Problem 4: Given that the discrete random variable X has density function f(x) given by
f(-1)= , f(0) = , f(1) = use Chebyshev’ s inequality to find the upper bound when

k = 2? [Ans. ]
-x
Problem 5: For geometric distribution P(x) = 2 ; x = 1, 2, . . . .Prove that Chebyshev’ s
inequality gives P[(| x - 2 |)  2] > while the actual probability is .
Problem 6: Two unbiased dice are thrown. If X is the sum of the numbers showing up.
Prove that P[(| x - 7 |)  3]  Also compare this with actual probability?
Problem 7: Suppose that X assumes the values 1 and – 1, each with probability 0.5. Find and
compare the lower bound on P[ -1 < X < 1] given by Chebyshev’ s inequality and the actual
probability that – 1 < X < 1?

Problem 8: Find a lower bound on P[ - 3 < X < 3] where  = E(X) = 0 and variance =2 = 1.
[Ans. L.b = ]
Problem 9: Use Chebyshev’s inequality to find a lower bound (l. b.) on P[ -4 < X < 20 ]
where the random variable X has a mean  = 8 and variance 2 = 9. [Ans. ]
Problem 10: If X is the number appearing on a die when it is thrown, show that the
Chebyshev’ s theorem gives P[| x - | > 2.5] < 0.47 while the actual probability is zero.

Problem 11: The number of customers who visit a car dealer show room on a certain day is a
random variable with mean 18 and standard deviation 2.5. With what probability can it be
asserted that there will be between 8 and 28 customers? [Ans. ]

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 9

Chebyshev’s theorem --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1: A random variable X has density function given by

(a) Find P[| x -  | > 1 ]; (b) Use Chebyshev’s inequality to obtain an upper bound on
P[| x - | > 1] and compare with the result in (a). [Ans. (a) e-3 = 0.04979 (b) 0.25]
Problem 2: Prove Chebyshev’ s inequality for a discrete variable X?

Problem 3: Let X1, X2, X3, . . . ,Xn be n independent random variables each having density

function . If Sn = X1+X2+X3+ . . . ,+Xn then show that P

Problem 4: A random variable X has mean 3 and variance 2. Use Chebyshev’ s inequality to
obtain an upper bound for (a) P[| X – 3|  2] (b) P[| X – |  1]
[Ans. 1, ]

Problem 5: A random variable X has the density function

then (a) find P[| X – |  2] (b) use Chebyshev’s inequality to obtain an upper bound on
P[| X – |  2] and compare with the result in (a). [Ans.(a)e-2, (b) 0.5]

Chapter 2 Lecture 6
Poisson’s theorem Probability Distributions by N. V. Nagendram

Definition: A random variable X is said to follow Poisson distribution if its probability mass

function is given by f(x, ) = , for x = 0, 2, 3, . . .

= 0 otherwise.
Poisson Approximation to Binomial Distribution Theorem:

Statement: As n   and p  0 so that np =  where  is a finite non-zero constant then

b(x, n, p) .

Proof: Let us consider b(x, n, p) so that

and given np =   also q = 1- p = 1 -

----------

(1)
Now as n  ,

and

 from equation (1) b(x, n, p)  .

This completes the proof of the Poisson’s Approximation to Binomial distribution theorem.

Note: 1.

2. Show that
 For that consider

3.  > 0 is called the parameter of the Poisson Distribution.

4. P(X = 0) =

Applications of Poisson distribution:

Poisson distribution is applicable when n is very large and p is very small. Hence some of the
applications of Poisson distribution are as follows:

1. Number of faulty blades produced by a reputed firm

2. Number of deaths from a disease such as heart attack or cancer.

3. Number of telephone calls received at a particular telephone exchange.

4. Number of cars passing a crossing per minute.

5. Number of printing mistake in a page of a book.

Mean and Variance of Poisson distribution:

Mean  = E(X)

Therefore Mean =  = 
 E(X2) = 2 e-e + 
E(X2) = 2 + 

Variance = V(X) = 2 = E(X2) – [E(X)]2 = 2 +  - 2 = .  variance = 

Standard Deviation = S.D. =

Note : In a Poisson distribution mean always equal to the variance.

Chapter 2 Lecture 7
Poisson’s m. g. f. Probability Distributions by N. V. Nagendram
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moment Generating Function of Poisson Distribution:

MX(t) = E[etx]

Additive Property of Poisson Variates:

Theorem: If x and Y are two independent random Poisson variates with parameters  and 
then X + Y is also a Poisson variate with parameter  + .
Proof: Since X is a Poisson variate with parameter   MX(t) =
Similarly, since Y is Poisson variate with parameter   MY(t) =

From the additive property of the moment generating function MX+Y (t) = MX(t). MY (t)
= .
=
Which is the moment generating function of a Poisson variate with parameter  +  .

 X + Y is also a Poisson variate with parameter  +  .

POISSON PROCESS:

t
T
 = np  p =  = np =
P(X=x) = [e-t (T)x ]/x!

Suppose we have to find the probability of x successes during a time interval T. Divide the
time interval T into n equal parts of width t. Therefore T = n. t .

Here we make the following assumptions:

(a) The probability of success during an interval t is given by .t.
(b) The probability more than one success in a small interval t is negligible.
(c) The probability of success in interval (t, t+t) is independent of the actual time t and also
of all previous successes.
Here the assumptions of binomial distribution are satisfied and the probability b(x, n, p)
where .
 As n  binomial distribution approaches to Poisson distribution and here parameter  is
 = np  p =  = np =
 P(X=x) = [e-t (T)x ] / x!

Chapter 2 Lecture 8
Normal distribution Probability Distributions by N. V. Nagendram
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Normal Distribution (N.Dn):
Normal distribution is also a continuous distribution. A random variable X is said to follow
normal distribution (N. Dn) with mean  and variance 2 if its probability density function is

given by , - < x <  ; - <  <  ;  > 0

= 0 , otherwise.

The corresponding distribution function is

Let Z = then the mean of Z is 0 and the variance is 1.

The corresponding probability density function is

Z is called standard normal variate.

Notation : 1. X  N(, 2) denotes that X is a normal variate with mean  and variance 2.
 2. Z  N(0, 1).
Features of Normal Distribution curve:
The graph of f(x) is a bell shaped curve extending from -  to  with its peak at .

-  
Graph of (Z):

-  
Note 1. The mode of normal distribution is .
2. The median of normal distribution is also . Hence for a normal distribution the
mean, median and mode coincide.

The area under the normal curve between the ordinates x = a and x = b gives the probability
that the random variable X lies between a and b.

 P(a < X < b) =

Put Z =

So dz =  dx = . dz

When x =a , z = =c (say)

When x = b, z = =d (say)

 P(a < X < b) = .

So,

1. 2.

3. 4.

The are available in the table 1.

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 10

n
Normal Distribution to B. D. --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1# Prove that normal distribution is a limiting form of Binomial distribution?

Problem 2# If 20% of the memory chips made in a certain plant are defective what are the
probabilities that in a lot of 100 randomly chosen for inspection ( i) at most 15 will be
defective ( ii) exactly 15 will be defective. [Ans. i) 0.1292 ii) 0.0454]

Problem 3# The mean weight of 500 male students at a certain college is 75 kg and the
standard deviation is 7 kg. Assuming that the weights are normally distributed. Find how
many students weigh (i) between 60 and 78 kg (ii ) more than 92 kg.
[Ans. 0.4838+0.1664=0.6502 ii) 0.5000-0.4925 = 0.0075]

Problem 4# Find the probability of getting 3 and 6 heads inclusive in 10 tosses of a fair coin
by using (i) Binomial distribution (ii) the normal approximation to the binomial distribution.
[Ans. 0.773 ; 0.6337]

Problem 5# If the masses of 300 students are normally distributed with mean 68.0 kg and
standard deviation 3.0 kg, how many students have masses:
(i) 72 kgs (ii)  64 kgs (iii) 65  X  71 kg inclusive
[Ans. i)0.0918 28 students ii) 0.0918 28 students iii) 0.6826 205 students]
Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 11
Poisson’s --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1# Define Poisson process with example and show that mean = variance for a
Poisson distribution?
Solution: Definition: Poisson process: The Poisson process is the method of obtaining
Poisson distribution independently without considering it as a limiting case of binomial
distribution. It will be a Poisson distribution with parameter t.
Example: 1. No. of telephones were Poisson process at a telephone exchange
2. No. of deaths due to heart attack or cancer.

To show that mean = variance in a Poisson distribution. For that Consider  = E(X) =

=
Consider E(X2) =

= 2e-.e + 
 E(X2) = 2 +  and 2 = V(X) = E(X2) – [E(X)]2 = 2 +  - 2
 2 = .   = 2 i.e., mean = variance
Hence the solution.

Problem 2# If the probability that an individual suffers a bad reaction due to a certain
injection is 0.001, determine the probability that out of 2000 individuals (i) exactly 3 (ii)
more than 2 individuals will suffer a bad reaction?

Solution: Given p = 0.001 ; n = 2000 ;  = np = 2

(i) to find P(Exactly 3) = P(X=3) = since e=2.086, 2<e<3

(ii) P(more than 2 individuals) = P(X > 2) = 1 – P(X 2) = 1 – [P(X=0) +P(x=1) + P(x=2)]

=1–[ + + ]

= 1 –e- [1++ ]

= 1 – 5e-2 = 0.323. Hence the solution.

Problem 3#A manufacturer of cotter pins knows that 5% of his product is defective. If he
sells cotter pins in boxes of 100 and guarantees that not more than 10 pins will be defective,
what is the approximate probability that a box will fail to meet the guaranteed quality?
Solution: We are given n = 100, p = probability of defective pin = 5% = 0.05
And  = mean number of defective pins in a box of 100 = np = 100 X 0.05 = 5

Since p is small, we may use Poisson distribution probability of ‘x’ defective pins in a box of

100 is P(X=x)

Probability that a box will fail to meet the guaranteed quality is P(X> 10) = 1- P(X 10)

=1-

= 1 – e-5

Hence the solution.

Problem 4# 10% of the bolts produced by a certain machine turn out to be defective. Find the
probability that in a sample of 10 tools selected at random exactly two will be defective using
(i) binomial distribution (ii) Poisson distribution and comment upon the result?
Solution: Given p = , n = 10,  = np = 1
(i) Using binomial distribution
Let q = 1 – p = 1 – 0.1 = 0.9
P(X=2) = 10C2 p2 q(n -2) =
(ii) Using Poisson distribution
 P(X=2) =

Comment : There is a difference between the two probabilities because of the fact that
Poisson distribution (P.D.) is an approximation to binomial distribution (B.D.) and it is
applicable for large n. Hence the solution.

Problem 5# A hospital switch board receives an average of 4 emergency calls in a 10 min.

interval. What is the probability that (i) there are at the most 2 emergency calls and (ii) there
are exactly 3 emergency calls in a 10 min. interval?

Solution: Given =4, (i) P(X 2)=P(X= 0)+P(X=1)+ P(X= 2) = =

e-[1++ ] = e-4[1+4+8] = 13 e-4 = 0.238.

(ii) P(X= 3) = Hence the solution.

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 12

Poisson’s --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 6# A rent a car firm has two cars which it hires from day to day. The number of
demands for a car on each day is distributed as a Poisson variate with mean 1.5. Calculate the
proportion of days on which (i) neither car is used (ii) some demand is refused?

Problem 7# In a Poisson distribution (P.D.), P(X = 0) = 2 P(X = 1), then find P(X = 2)?

Problem 8# In a factory which turns out razor blades, there is a chance of 0.002 for any blade
to be defective. The blades are supplied in packets of 10 each. Using Poisson distribution,
Calculate the approximate number of packets containing no defective, one defective and two
defective blades if there are 10,000 such packets?

Problem 9# the probability of getting no misprint in a page of a book is e -4. Determine the
probability that a page of a book contains more than 2 misprints?

Problem 10# Obtain the Poisson distribution (P.D.) as a limiting case of Binomial
distribution?

Problem 11# Fit a Poisson distribution to the following data and calculate the
theoretical frequencies:
x 0 1 2 3 4
y 46 38 22 9 1
2 2 2
Solution: Mean µ = E(X) =  and Variance V(X) =  = E(X ) – [E(X)]
2
xi fi fi xi xi fi xi2
0 46 0 0 0
1 38 38 1 38
 2 22 44 4 88
3 9 27 9 81
4 1 4 16 16

Mean = ;

Variance =

 Mean =Variance =  = 0.974.

The theoretical frequencies are f(x) = N. P(X=x)
f(0) = 116. P(X=0) = 116. E-0.974 = 44

f(1) = 116. P(X=1) =

f(2) = 116. P(X=2) =

f(3) = 116. P(X=3) =

f(4) = 116. P(X=4) = 116 – {f(0) +f(1)+f(2)+f(3)} = 116 – 114 = 2

Hence the solution.

Problem 12# If a bank receives on an average 6 bad cheques per day, what are the
probabilities that it will receive (i) four bad cheques on any given day (ii) 10 bad cheques on
any two consecutive days.
Solution: Let

t
T
 = np  p =  = np =
P(X=x) = [e-t (T)x ]/x!
 = 6, T = 1 and   = T = 6
f(4,6) = e-6 . 64 = 0.1339
4!

F(10; )=

Hence the solution.

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 13

Poisson’s Process --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problem 1# Fit a Poisson distribution to the following

x: 0 1 2 3 4
y: 46 38 22 9 1

Problem 2# Fit a Poisson distribution to the set of observations as below

x: 0 1 2 3 4
y: 122 60 15 2 1

Problem 3# The incidence of occupational disease in an industry is such that the workmen
have a 10% chance of suffering from it. What is probability of 7, five or more will suffer
from it?

Problem 4# A car hire firm has two cars which it hires out day by day. The number of
demands for a car on each day is distributed as a Poisson distribution with mean 1.5. calculate
the proportion of days. (i) on which there is no demand (ii) on which demand is refused
(e-5 = 0.2231)? [Ans. i)0.2231 ii)0.1913]

Problem 5# If a random variable has a Poisson distribution such that P(1) = P(2) find (i)
mean of the distribution (ii) P(4) ? [Ans. i) 2 ii) (2/3).e- 2]

Problem 6# If the probability of a bad reaction from a certain injection is 0.001, determine
the chance that out of 2,000 individuals more than two will get a bad reaction?[Ans.0.32]
Problem7 # If 3 % of the electric bulbs manufactured by a company are defective, find the
probability that in a sample of 100 bulbs
(i) 0 (ii) 1 (iii) 4 [Ans. i) 0.04979 ii)0.1494 iii) 0.1008]

Problem 8# Ten present of the tools produced in a certain manufacturing process turn out to
be defective. Find the probability that in a sample of 10 tools chosen at random exactly two
will be defective by using the Poisson approximation to the binomial distribution?[Ans.0.18]

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 14

Normal Distributions --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1# Show that the mean deviation from the mean for normal distribution (N.D n) is
equal to 4/5 of standard deviation approximately? [Ans. M.D=4/5]

Problem 2# X is normally distributed with mean 12 and S.D = 4then find (i) P(0X12) (ii)
P(X  20) (iii) P(X  20) (iv) if P(X > C) = 0.24.
[Ans. i)0.4896 ii)0.9772 iii) 0.0228 iv) 0.24 and C= 14.84]

Problem 3# Show that the mean deviation from the mean for the normal distributon [N.D n]is
4/5 of standard deviation approximately. [Ans.  =0.79=4/5]

Problem 4# Xis a normal variate with mean 30 and standard deviation 5. Find the
probabilities that (i) 26  X  40 (ii) X  45. [Ans. i) 0.2882+0.4772=0.7653 ii) 0.0013]

Problem 5# A random variable has normal distribution with  = 62.4. find its standard
deviation if the probability is 0.20 that it will take on a value greater than 79.2. [Ans. =20]

Problem 6# find the probabilities that a random variable having a standard normal
distribution will take on a value (i) between 0.87 and 1.28 (ii) between – 0.34 and 0.62.
[Ans. i) 0.0919 ii) 0.1443 + 0.2343 = 0.3767]
Problem 7# In a normal distribution (N.Dn) 31% of the items are under 45 and 8% are over
63. Find the mean and variance of the distribution. [Ans. =50, =10]

Problem 8# In a normal distribution (N.Dn), 7% of the items are under 35 and 89% are over
64. Find the mean and variance of the distribution. [Ans. =50.3, =10.33]

Chapter 2 Lecture 7
Sampling Sampling Distributions by N. V. Nagendram

Sampling Distributions: Introduction

The field of statistics deals with the collection presentation, analysis and use of data to make
decision and solve problems. The main objective of any statistical study is to draw
conclusions about a collection of objects under study. This collection is called the Population.
Instead of examining this population, which may be difficult or impossible to do, one may
arrive at the idea of examining only a small part of this population, which is called a sample.
This can be done with the aim of drawing inferences about the population by using
information from the sample, this process is known as statistical inference. The process of
drawing samples is called sampling. A sample is a true or good representative of the
population, if the sampling method is probabilistic. The most important of all probabilistic
samplings is the random sampling, in which each member of the population has the equal
chance of being included in the sample. Samples will be used to draw inferences about
population, by estimating the parameters of population, such as mean (µ) , standarad
deviation () etc., Estimation of population parameters is possible only by studying some
relevant statistical quantities computed from a sample of the population called sample
statistics (or) simply statistic is often used for the random variable or for its value, the
particular sense being clear from the context.

Let us consider all possible samples of a population and calculate a statistic for instance
sample mean. Then the set of all such b\values, one for each sample, is called the sampling
distribution of the statistic.

Now we can compute the statistics mean variance etc., for this sampling distribution.
In most statistic problems, it is necessary to use the information from sample to draw
inferences about the population.
Definition: Population
The population in a statistical study is the set or collection or totality of observations about
which inferences are to be drawn. Thus the population consists of sets of numbers,
measurements or observations. Population size N is the number of objects or observations in
the population.

Population is said to be finite or infinite depending on the size N being finite or infinite. Since
it is impracticable to examine the entire population, a finite subset of the population known as
sample is studied. Sample size n is the number of objects or observations in the sample.

Example: (i) Engineering graduate students in A.P. (Population), Engineering graduate

students of a college (Sample)

Population Sample

Example: Total production of items in a month (Population), Total production of items in

one day (Sample)

Example: Budget of India (Population), Budget of A.P. (Sample), budget of a district (sub
sample)

Population Sample

A
Sub sample
B
C

Definition: Population parameter:

A statistical measure or constant obtained from the population is called population parameter.

Example: population mean (µ), population variance (2).

Definition: (Sample) statistic: A statistical measurement computed from sample
observations is called a (sample) statistic.
Example: sample mean ( ), sample variance (s2) clearly, parameters are to population while
statistics are to sample.

µ, , p represent the population mean, population standard deviation, population proportion,

similarly , s , p denote sample mean, sample standard deviation(s. s. d.), sample proportion.

Note: The samples must be a true or good representative of the population, sampling should
be random or probabilistic.
Definition: Sampling: The process of drawing or obtaining samples is called sampling.

Definition: Large sampling: If n ≥ 30, then the sampling is known as large sampling.

Definition: Small sampling: If n < 30, then the sampling is known as small or exact
sampling.

Note: The simplest and most commonly used type of probabilistic sampling is the random
sampling.

Definition: Random Sampling: Each member of the population has equal chances or
probability of being included in the sample. The sample obtained by this method is termed as
a random sample.

Definition: Finite Population: Population may be finite or infinite. If the number of items or
observations consisting the population is fixed and limited, it is called as finite population.

Example: The workers in a factory, student in a college etc.,

Factory

Workers student

College

Definition: Infinite Population: If the number of items or observations consisting the

population is infinite (not fixed and not limited), it is called as finite population.

Example: The population of all real numbers lying between 0 and 1. The population of stars
or astral bodies in the sky.
Definition: Sampling with replacement: If the items are selected or drawn one by one such
a way that an item drawn at a time is replaced back to the population before the next or
subsequent draw, it is known as (random) sampling with replacement.

In this type of sampling from a population of size N, the probability of a selection of a unit at
each draw remains . Thus sampling from finite population with replacement can be
considered theoretically as sampling from infinite population. In this, N n samples will be
drawn.

Definition: In Sampling without replacement:

An item of the population cannot be chosen more than once, as it is not replaced. In this N Cn
samples will be drawn. Hence the probability of drawing a unit from a population of N items
at r th draw is .
Statistic is a real-valued function of the random sample. So it is a function of one or more
random variables not involving any unknown parameter. Thus statistic is a function of
samples observations only and is itself a random variable. Hence a statistic must have a
probability distribution.

Definition: Sample mean: Let x1, x2, x3,. . . , xn be a random, sample of size n from a

population. Then sample mean = ( ) = .

Definition: sample Variance: Then sample variance = s2 = .

Sample standard deviation is the positive square root of sample variance. Sample mean and
sample variance are two important statistics which are statistical measures of a random
sample of size n.
 Chapter 2 Lecture 8
Sampling Sampling Distributions by N. V. Nagendram

Sampling Distribution:
Let us consider all possible samples of size n, from a finite population of size N. Then the
total number of all possible samples of size n, which can be drawn from the population is
NCn = m.

Compute a statistic  [such as mean, variance /s.d, proportion] for each of these sample using
the sample data x1, x2, x3,. . . , xn by  = ( x1, x2, x3,. . . , xn)

Sample 1 2 3 ... m
number
Statistic  1 2 3 ... m

Sampling distribution of the statistic  is the set of values {1, 2, 3, . . ., m} of the statistic
 Obtained, one for each sample. Thus sampling distribution describes how a statistic  will
vary from one sample to the other of the same size. Although all the m samples are drawn
from the given population, the items included in different samples are different.

If the statistic  is mean, then the corresponding distribution of the statistic is known as
sampling distribution of means, thus if  is variance, proportion etc., the corresponding
distribution is known as sampling distribution of variances, sampling distribution of
proportions etc.,

Then Mean of sampling distribution of  = ( ) = .

And Variance of sampling distribution of  = .

Similarly we can have mean of sampling distribution of means, variance of sampling
distribution of means, variance of the sampling distribution of variances etc.,

Standarad Error:
The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of a statistic is known as standard error
(SE). The standard error gives some idea about the precision of the estimate of the
parameters. As the sample size n increases, S.E. decreases. S.E. plays a very important role in
large sample decision theory and forms the basis in hypothesis testing.
Sampling distribution of a statistic enables us to know information about the corresponding
population parameter.
Degrees of freedom ():
The number of degrees of freedom usually denoted by greek alphabet , is a positive integer
equals to n – k where n is the number of independent observations of the random sample and
k is the number of population parameters which are calculated using the sample data. The
degrees of freedom  = n - k is the difference between n the sample size and k the number of
independent contains imposed on the observations in the sample.

The sampling distribution of the Mean ( known):

To answer any questions related to sampling distribution of the mean ( ) we need to
consider a random sample of n observations and determine the value for each sample, then
by various values of , it may be possible to get an idea of the nature of the sampling
distribution. Aslo we have to consider the following theorem for the mean  and the
variance  of sampling distribution of the mean ( ).

Theorem: If a random sample of size n is taken from a population having the mean  and the
variance 2 , then ( ) is a random variable whose distribution has the mean .

Proof: For samples from infinite population the variance of this distribution is .

For samples from finite population the variance of this distribution is

By above statement, population is infinite then sampling with replacement

 =  and  =
And when the population is finite, size N (sampling without replacement)

 =  and  =

Note: The factor is known as finite population correction factor.

In sampling with replacement, we will have Nn samples each with probability

In sampling without replacement we will have NCn samples each with probability .

Note: The factor can be neglected if N is too large compared to the sample size n.

Chapter 2 Lecture 9
Sampling Sampling Distributions by N. V. Nagendram

Central limit theorem:

Whenever n is large, the sampling distribution of approximately normal with mean  and

variance regardless of the form of the parent population distribution, as the following

theorem states [without proof]

Theorem: If is the mean of a random sample of size n drawn from a population with mean

 and finite variance 2 then the standardized sample mean Z = is a random variable

whose distribution function approaches that of the standard normal distribution N(0, 1) as
n  .

Normal distribution provides a good approximation to the sampling distribution for almost all
the populations for n  30.

For n < 30 small samples, sampling distribution of is normally distributed, provided

sampling is from normal population.

Sampling distribution of proportions:

Suppose that a population is infinite and that the probability of occurance of an event called
its success is p, while the probability of non-occurance of the event is q = 1 – p. Consider all
possible samples of size N drawn from tis population, and for each sample compute the
proportion p of successes. Then, we can have a sampling distribution of proportions whose

mean p and standard deviation p are given by p = p and p2 = …….(1)

While population is binomially distributed, the sampling distribution of proportion is

normally distributed whenever n is large  30. Equation (1) are also valied for a finite
population in which sampling is with replacement.
For finite population sampling without replacement of size N

p = p and p2 =

Sampling distributions of differences and sums:

Let S and  S be the mean and standard deviation of a sampling distribution of statistic S 1
obtained by calculating S1 for all possible samples of size n1 drawn from population 1. This
yields a sampling distribution of the statistic S1.

In a similar manner, S and  S be the mean and standard deviation of sampling distribution
of statistic S2 obtained by calculating S2 for all possible samples of size n 2 drawn from
another different population 2.

Now we can have a distribution of differences S 1 – S2, called the sampling distribution of
differences of the statistics, from the two population 1 and 2. Then the mean S - S and the
standard deviation S - S the sampling distribution of differences are given by

S - S = S1 – S2
and

S - S = provided the samples are independent.

Sampling distribution of sum of statistics has mean S + S = S1 + S2 and

S + S = provided the samples are independent.

For infinite population the sampling distribution of the differences of means has mean (
)and ( ) given by

( ) = ( - =  -  and

( )= = .

For infinite population the sampling distribution of sums of means has mean
( )and ( ) given by

( ) = ( + =  +  and

( )= = .

Sampling distribution of mean  unknown: t-distribution:

To estimate or infer on a population mean or the difference between two population means, it
was assumed that the population standard deviation  is known. When  is unknown, for
large n  30,  can be replaced by the sample standard deviation s, calculated using the

sample mean by the formula = s2 = .

For small sample of size n < 30 the unknown  can be substituted by s, provided we make an
assumption that the sample is drawn from a normal population.

A random variable having the t-distribution:

Let be the mean of a random sample of size n drawn from a normal population with mean 

and variance 2 then t = is a random variable having the t-distribution with  = n – 1

degrees of freedom. Where s2 = .

This result is more general than previous theorem CLT in the sense that it does not require
knowledge of : on the other hand, it is less general than the previous theorem CLT in the
sense that it requires the assumption of normal population.

Thus for all small samples n < 30 and with  unknown a statistic for inference on population

mean  is t = With the underlying assumption of sampling from normal population.

The t-distribution curve is symmetric about the mean 0, bell shaped and asymptotic on both
sides of horizontal t-axis.
Thus t-distribution curve is similar to normal curve. The variance for the t-distribution is
more than 1 as it depends on the parameter  = n – 1 degrees of freedom.

but it approaches 1 as n  . In essence, as  = (n – 1 )  , t-distribution tends to the

standard normal distribution. Clearly for n 30, standard normal distribution provides a good
approximation to the t-distribution.

Critical values of t-distribution is denote by t , which is such that the area under the curve to
the right of t equals to . Since the t-distribution is symmetric, it follows that t 1 -  = - t
i.e., the t-value leaving an area of 1 -  to the right and therefore an area  to its left, is equal
to the negative t-value which leaves an area  in the right tail of the distribution.

Please observe critical values of t  for values of the parameter . In tables the left-hand
column contains values of , the column headings are area  in the right hand tail of the t-
distribution, the entries are values of t.
 Chapter 2 Lecture 10
2- Distribution Sampling Distributions by N. V. Nagendram

Definition: 2 (chi squared) distribution is a continuous probability distribution of a c.r.v. X

with probability density function given by
Where  is a +ve integer is the only single parameter of the distribution, also known as
degrees of freedom.

Properties of 2- Distribution:

(i) 2- Distribution curve is not symmetrical, lies entirely in the first quadrant. And hence not
a normal curve, since 2 varies from 0 to .

(ii) It depends only on the degrees of freedom .

(iii) If X12 and X22 are two independent distributions with 1, 2 degrees of freedom then
12+22 will be chi- squared distributions with (1 + 2) degrees of freedom – i.e, it is additive.

Hence  denotes the area under the chi-squared distribution to the right of 2.
So 2 represents the 2-value such that the area under the 2-curve to its right is equal to .

2-distribution is very important in estimation and hypothesis testing 2-distribution is used in

sampling distributions, analysis of variance mainly, it is used as a measure of goodness of fit
and in analysis of r  c tables.

For various values of  and , the values of 2 are tabulated.

In 2- table the left-hand column contains values of  (degrees of freedom), the column
headings are areas  in the right hand tail of 2-distribution curve, the entries are 2- values. It
is necessary to calculate values of 2 for  > 0.50, since 2 curve or distribution is not
symmetrical.
Sampling distribution of Variance s2:

From the earlier discussions, the sample mean is used to estimate the population mean.
Similarly, the sample variance is used to estimate the population variance (2). The sample

variance is usually denoted by s2 and is given by .

A random variable having the 2-distribution:

Theorem: If s2 is the variance of a random sample of size n from a normal population having

the variance 2 then 2 = is a random variable having the 2-

distribution with  = n – 1 dof.

Exactly 95% of 2-distribution lies between 20.975 and 20.025 when 2 is too small. 2-value
falls to the right of 20.025 and when 2 is too large, 2 falls to the left of 20.975. thus when 2 is
correct 2-value fall s to the left of 20.975 or to the right of 20.025.
critical region for testing : H0: 2 = 02
Alternate hpothesis Reject H0 if
2 < 02 2  21-
2 > 02 2  2
2  02 2  2(1-)/2
F-Distribution (sampling distribution of the ratio of two sample variances):

Definition: Another important continuous probability distribution which plays an important

role in connection with sampling from normal population is the F-distribution.

If s12 and s22 are the variances of independent random samples of size n 1 and n2 from normal
populations with variances 12 and 22.

To determine whether the two samples come from two populations having equal variances,
consider the sampling distribution of the ratio of the variances of the two independent random

samples defined by which follows F-distribution with 1 = n1 – 1 and

2 = n2 – 1 degrees of freedom.

Uses: F-distribution can be used for testing the quality of several population means,
comparing sample variances, and analysis of variance completely depends on F-distribution.

Under the hypothesis that two normal populations have the same variance : 12 = 22, we have

F determines whether the ratio of two sample variances s 1 and s2 is too small or too large.
When F is close to 1, the two sample variances s 1 and s2 are almost same. F is always a
positive number whenever the larger sample variance as the numerator.

f(F) f(F)

1 = 5, 2 = 5

1 = 5, 2 = 15

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 10 F0.05 F0.01

Probability density functions of several F distributions Tabulated values of F

Properties of F-distribution:
(i) F-distribution curve lies entirely in first quadrant.
(ii) The F-curve depends not only on the two parameters 1 and 2 but also on the order in
Which they are stated.

(iii) F1 -(1, 2) = where is the value of F with 1 and 2 degrees of

Freedom such that the area under the F-distribution curve to the right of F is .

Note:
Critical regions for testing the null hypothesis: 12 = 22

Alternate hypothesis Test statistic Reject H0 if:

12 < 22 F> F(n2 – 1, n1 – 1)

12 > 22 F> F(n1 – 1, n2 – 1)

12  22 F> F/2(nM – 1, nm – 1)

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 15
Sampling - Population PROBLEMS --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1# Find the value of the finite population correction factor for (i) n = 10 and N =
1000 (ii) n = 100 and N = 1000 ?

Problem 2# A random sample of size 2 is drawn from the population 3,4,5. Find (i)
population mean (ii) Population S.D. (iii) Sampling distribution (SD) of means (iv) the
mean of SD of means (v) S.D of SD means?

Problem 3# A random sample of size 2 is drawn from the population 3,4,5. Find (i)
population mean (ii) Population S.D. (iii) Sampling distribution (SD) of means (iv) the
mean of SD of means (v) S.D of SD means? Solve the problem without replacement?
[Ans.0.4082]
Problem 4# Determine the mean and s.d of sampling distributions of variances for the
population 3,7,11,15 with n = 2 and with sampling (i) with replacement and (ii) without
replacement? [Ans. 11.489]

Problem 5# Find P if a random sample size 36 is drawn from an infinite

population with mean  = 63 and s.d.  = 9. [Ans. 0.0062]

Problem 6# Determine the probability that mean breaking strength of cables produced by
company 2 will be (i) at least 600N more than (ii) at least 450 N more than the cables produced by
company 1, if 100 cables of brand 1 and 50 cables of brand 2 are tested.
company Mean breaking s.d. Sample size
strength
1 4000 N 300 N 100
2 4500 N 200 N 50
[Ans. 0.8869]
Problem 7# Let and be the average drying time of two types of oil paints 1 and 2 for
samples size n1 = n2 = 18. Suppose 1 = 2 = 1. Find the value of P( - > 1), assuming
that mean drying time is equal for the two types of oil paints. [Ans. 0.0013]

Problem 8# A company claims that the mean life time of tube lights is 500 hours. Is the
claim of the company tenable if a random sample of 25 tube lights produced by th company
has mean 518 hours and s.d. 40 hours. [Ans. 2.492]

Problem 9# Determine the probability that the variance of the first sample of size n 1 = 9 will
be at least 4 times as large as the variance of the second sample of size n 2 = 16 if the two
samples are independent random samples from a normal population. [Ans. 0.01]
Problem 10# Is there reason to believe that the life expected of group A and Group B is same
or not from the following data

GroupA 34 39.2 46.1 48.7 49.4 45.9 55.3 42.7 43.7 56.6
Group B 49.7 55.4 57.0 54.2 50.4 44.2 53.4 57.5 61.9 58.2
[Ans. 1.63]

Problem 11# A random sample of size 25 from a normal population has the mean =47.5
and the standard deviation s = 8.4. does this information tend to support of refute the claim
that the mean of the population is  = 42.1? [Ans. t =3.21]

Problem 12# In 16 hour ten runs, the gasoline consumption of an engine averaged 16.4
gallons with a. s. d. of 2.1 gallons. Test the claim that the average gasoline consumption of
this engine is 12.0 gallons per hour. [Ans. t =8.38]

Problem 13# Suppose that the thickness of a part used in a semiconductor is its critical
dimension, and that process of manufacturing these parts is considered to be under control if
the true version among the thickness of the parts is given by a standard deviation not greater
than  = 0.60 thousandth of an inch. To keep a check on the process, random samples of size
n = 20 are taken periodically, and is regarded to be “out of control” if the probability that s 2
will take on a value greater than or equal to the observed sample value is 0.01 or less even
though  = 0.60 what can one conclude about the process if the standard deviation of such a
periodic random sample is s = 0.84 thousandth of an inch? [Ans.37.24]

Problem 14# A soft-drink vending machine is set so that the amount of drink dispensed is a
random variable with a mean of 200 millilitres and a standard deviation of 15 millilitres’.
What is the probability that the average (mean) amount dispensed in a random sample size of
36 at least 204 millilitres?

Problem 15# If two independent random sample of size n 1 = 7 and n2 = 13 are taken from a
normal population what is the probability that the variance of the first sample will be at least
three times as large that of the second sample?

Problem 16# The claim that the variance of a normal population is 2 = 21.3 is rejected if the
variance of a random sample of size 15 exceeds 39.74. What is the probability that the claim
will be rejected even though 2 = 21.3? [Ans.0025]

Problem 17# An electronic company manufactures resistors that have a mean resistance of
100  and a standard deviation of 10 . The distribution of resistance is normal. Find the
probability that a random sample 25 resistors will have an average resistance less than 95 ?
[Ans. 0.0062]
Problem 18# The mean voltage of a battery is 15 volt and s.d.is 0.2 volt. What is the
probability that four such batteries connected in series will have a combined voltage of 60.8
or more volts? [Ans. 0.0228]
Problem 19# Certain ball bearings have a mean weight of 5.02 ounces and standard
deviation of 0.30 ounces. Find the probability that a random sample of 100 ball bearings will
have a combined weight between 496 and 500 ounces? [Ans. 0.2318]

Problem 20# A manufacturer of fuses claims that with a 20% overload, the fuses will blow
in 12.40 minutes on the average. To test the claim, a sample of 20 of the fuses was subjected
to a 20% overload, and the times it took them to blow had a mean of 10.63 minutes and a s.d.
of 2.48 minutes. If it can be assumed that the data constitute a random sample from a normal
population, do they tend to support or refute the manufacturer’s claim? [Ans.- 3.19]

Problem 21# show that for random samples of size n from a normal population with the

variance 2, the sampling distribution of 2 has the mean 2 and the variance ?

Problem 22# If S12 and S22 are the variances of independent random samples of size n 1 = 10
and n2 = 15 from normal population with equal variances find P(S12/ S22 < 4.03)?[Ans. 0.99]

Problem 23# A random sample of size n = 25 from a normal population has the mean =
47 and the standard deviation  = 7. It we base our decision on the statistic, can we say that
the given information supports the conjecture that the mean of the population is  = 42?

Problem 24# The claim that the variance of a normal population is 2 =4 is to be rejected if
the variance of a random sample of size 9 exceeds 7.7535. What is the probability that this
claim will be rejected even though 2 =4? [Ans. 0.5]

Problem 25# A random sample of size n = 12 from a normal population = 27.8 has the
mean and the variance 2 = 3.24. it we base our decision on the statistic can we say that the
given information supports the claim that the mean of the population is  = 28.5?[Ans.-1.347]
Problem 26# The distribution of annual earnings of all bank letters with five years
experience is skewed negatively. This distribution has a mean of Rs.19000 and a standard
deviation of Rs.2000. If we draw a random sample of 30 tellers, what is the probability that
the earnings will average more than Rs.19750 annually? [Ans. 0.0202]

Problem 27# If a gallon can of paint covers on the average 513.3 square feet(Ft 2.) with a
standard deviation(s.d.) of 31.5 square feet(Ft 2.). what is the probability that the mean area
covered by a sample of 40 of these 1 gallon cans will be anywhere from 510 to 520 square
feet(Ft2.)? [Ans.0.6553]

Problem 28# A random sample of 100 is taken from an infinite population having the mean
 = 76 and the variance = 2 = 256. Find the probability that will be between 75 and 78?
[Ans. 0.6268]
Problem 29# If two independent random samples of size n 1 = 13 and n2 = 7 are taken from a
normal population. What is the probability that the variance of the first sample will be atleast
four times as that of the second sample? [Ans. 4.00]
Problem 30# If two independent random samples of size n1 = 26 and n2 = 8 are taken from a
normal population. What is the probability that the variance of the second sample will be
atleast 2.4 times as that of the first sample? [Ans. 0.05]

Problem 31# If the actual amount of instant coffee which a filing machine puts into “6-
ounce” jars is r. v. having a normal distribution with s.d. 0.05 ounce and if only 3% of the jars
are to contain less than 6 ounces of coffee, what must be the mean fill of these jars?
[Ans. =6.094]

Problem 32# A manufacturer of a certain type of synthetic fishing line has found from long
experience of testing that the breaking strength of his product has an approximate normal
distribution with a mean of 30 pounds( lbs. ) and a standard deviation of 4 pounds( lbs. ). A
time and money saving change in the manufacture process of the product is tried. A sample
of 25 testing length pieces of the new process line is taken and tested with a resulting sample
mean of 28 pounds(lbs.) What is the probability of obtaining a mean as low as 28 if the
process has had no harmful effect on breaking strength? [Ans. 0.006]

Problem 33# An Urn contains 1000 white and 2000 black balls. If X denotes the number of
white balls when 300 balls are drawn without replacement, then find P(180 < X < 120)?
[Ans. 0.9858]

Problem 34# Two movie theatres compete for 900 visitors. Suppose each visitor chooses one
of the two balls independent of the choice of the other visitors; how many seats should each
theatre have so that the probability of turning away any visitor for lack of seats is less than
1%? [Ans. 489]

Problem 35# Let X be a random variable where x is unknown as x2 = 0.25 i.e.,1/4 Find out
how large a random sample must be taken in order that the probability will be at test 0.95 and
the sample mean will lies within 0.25 of the population mean? [Ans. 80]

Problem 36# If a random sample of size n is selected from the finite population that consists
of the integers 1,2,3,. . . ,N show that (i) the mean is (ii) the variance of is

(iii) the mean and the variance of Y = n. are E(Y) = and the

var(Y) = ?
Problem 37# How many different samples of size n =3 can be drawn from a finite population
of size (a) N =12 (b) N = 20 (c) N = 50 [Ans. a) 220, b) 1140 c) 19600]
Problem 38# What is the probability of each possible sample if (i) a random sample of size n
=4 is to be drawn from a finite population of size N = 12 (ii) a random sample of size n = 5 is
to be drawn from a finite population of size N = 22? [Ans. a) 1/495 b) 1/77]

Problem 39# Independent random samples of size n1 = 30 and n2 = 50 are taken from two
normal populations having the means 1 = 78 and 2 = 78 and the variances 12 and 22. Find
the probability that the mean of the first sample will exceed that of the second sample by at
least 4.8? [Ans. 0.2743]

Problem 40# If S1 and S2 are the variances of independent random samples of size n 1 = 61

and n2 = 31 from normal population with 12 = 12 and 22 = 18 Find [Ans. 0.05]

Chapter 2 Probability Distributions Tutorial 15

Sampling - Population --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problem 1# Find the value of the finite population correction factor for (i) n = 10 and N =
1000 (ii) n = 100 and N = 1000 ?
Solution: (i)

(ii)
Hence the solution.

Problem 2# A random sample of size 2 is drawn from the population 3,4,5. Find (i)
population mean (ii) Population S.D. (iii) Sampling distribution (SD) of means (iv) the
mean of SD of means (v) S.D of SD means?
Solution:
(i) Population mean =  =

(ii) s.d. of population =  =

(iii) sampling with replacement (infinite population): The total number of samples with
replacement is Nn = 32= 9 here N = population size and n = sample size. Listing all possible
samples of size 2 from population 3,4,5 with replacement, we get 9 samples as below:

Now compute the statistic the arithmetic mean for each of these 9 samples the set of 9
samples means , gives rise to the distribution of means of the sample known as sampling
distribution of means

3 3.5 4
3.5 4 4.5
4 4.5 5
This sampling distribution of means can also be arranged in the form of frequency distribution
Sample mean 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
i

Frequency fi 1 2 3 2 1

(iv) Mean of the sampling distribution of means =  =

Showing  == 4

(v) 2 =

therefore  = 0.5773

Problem 3# A random sample of size 2 is drawn from the population 3,4,5. Find (i)
population mean (ii) Population S.D. (iii) Sampling distribution (SD) of means (iv) the
mean of SD of means (v) S.D of SD means? Solve the problem without replacement?
[Ans.0.4082]
Solution:
(i) =4 (ii)  = 0.8164
(iii) Sampling without replacement finite population the toal number of samples without
replacement is Ncn = 3C2 = 3 the three saples are (3,4), (3,5) (4,5) and their means are 3.5, 4.
4.5

(iv)  == mean of smpling distribution of means = =

(iv) 2 =

 = 0.4082.
Hence the solution.

Problem 4# Determine the mean and s.d of sampling distributions of variances for the
population 3,7,11,15 with n = 2 and with sampling (i) with replacement and (ii) without
replacement? [Ans. 11.489]

Solution: (i) Nn = 42 = 16 samples

(3,3),(3,7) , . . ., (15,11), (15,15)
With
Means 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
Frequency 1 2 3 4 3 2 1
Variances 0 4 16 36

= 10; 2S2 = =11.489

Hence the solution.

Problem 5# Find P if a random sample size 36 is drawn from an infinite

population with mean  = 63 and s.d.  = 9. [Ans. 0.0062]

Solution: let z = Hence P = P(Z> 2.50) = 0.0062.

Hence the solution.

Problem 6# Determine the probability that mean breaking strength of cables produced by
company 2 will be (i) at least 600N more than (ii) at least 450 N more than the cables produced by
company 1, if 100 cables of brand 1 and 50 cables of brand 2 are tested.
company Mean breaking s.d. Sample size
strength
1 4000 N 300 N 100
2 4500 N 200 N 50
 [Ans. 0.8869]
Solution: ( - )=( )- ( )= 4500 – 4000 = 500 N

( - )=

(i) P( - > 600) = P(Z > ) = P(Z > 2.4254) = 0.0078

(ii) P( - > 450) = P(Z > ) = P(Z > -1.2127) = 0.8869.

Hence the solution.

Problem 7# Let and be the average drying time of two types of oil paints 1 and 2 for
samples size n1 = n2 = 18. Suppose 1 = 2 = 1. Find the value of P( - > 1), assuming
that mean drying time is equal for the two types of oil paints. [Ans. 0.0013]

Solution: 2 ( - )=

P( - ) = P(Z > ) = P(Z > = P(Z > 3) = 1- 0.9987 = 0.0013

Hence the solution.

Problem 8# A company claims that the mean life time of tube lights is 500 hours. Is the
claim of the company tenable if a random sample of 25 tube lights produced by th company
has mean 518 hours and s.d. 40 hours. [Ans. 2.492]
Solution: Given = 518 hrs. n = 25, s = 40,  = 500

t= since, t = 2.25 < t0.01, v =24 = 2.492

Accept the claim of the company. Hence the solution.

Problem 9# Determine the probability that the variance of the first sample of size n 1 = 9 will
be at least 4 times as large as the variance of the second sample of size n 2 = 16 if the two
samples are independent random samples from a normal population. [Ans. 0.01]

Solution: From table F0.01 = 4 for 1 = n1 – 1= 9 – 1

2 = n2 – 1 = 16 – 1 = 15, the desired probability is 0.01 [from F0.01 tables]
Hence the solution.

Problem 10# Is there reason to believe that the life expected of group A and Group B is same
or not from the following data

GroupA 34 39.2 46.1 48.7 49.4 45.9 55.3 42.7 43.7 56.6
Group B 49.7 55.4 57.0 54.2 50.4 44.2 53.4 57.5 61.9 58.2
[Ans. 1.63]
Solution: Given data S2A =

S2B =

F= clearly, variances empectancy is same for

Group A and Group B. Hence the solution.

Problem 11# A random sample of size 25 from a normal population has the mean =47.5
and the standard deviation s = 8.4. does this information tend to support of refute the claim
that the mean of the population is  = 42.1? [Ans. t =3.21]

Solution: given n =25, =47.5,  = 42.1, s = 8.4 we have from t-distribution t

= . This value of t has 24 degrees of freedom. From the

table of t-distribution for  = 24, we get probability that t will exceed 2.797 is 0.005. Then the
probability of getting a value greater than 3.21 is negligible. Hence we conclude that the
information given in the data of this example tend to refute the claim that the mean of the
population is  = 42.1. Hence the solution.

Problem 12# In 16 hour ten runs, the gasoline consumption of an engine averaged 16.4
gallons with a. s. d. of 2.1 gallons. Test the claim that the average gasoline consumption of
this engine is 12.0 gallons per hour. [Ans. t =8.38]

Solution: substituting n = 16, =12.0, = 16.4 and s = 21 into the formula for t=

, but from the table for  = 15 the probability of getting a value

of t greater than 2.947 is 0.005. the probability of getting a value greater than 8 must be
negligible. Thus, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the true average hourly gasoline
consumption of the engine exceeds 12.0 gasoline. Hence the solution.

Problem 13# Suppose that the thickness of a part used in a semiconductor is its critical
dimension, and that process of manufacturing these parts is considered to be under control if
the true version among the thickness of the parts is given by a standard deviation not greater
than  = 0.60 thousandth of an inch. To keep a check on the process, random samples of size
n = 20 are taken periodically, and is regarded to be “out of control” if the probability that s 2
will take on a value greater than or equal to the observed sample value is 0.01 or less even
though  = 0.60 what can one conclude about the process if the standard deviation of such a
periodic random sample is s = 0.84 thousandth of an inch? [Ans.37.24]

Solution: The process will be declared “out of control” if with n = 20 and  = 0.60

exceeds 20.01,19 = 36.91, since = 37.24 exceeds 36.191, the process is

declared out of control. Of course it is assumed here that the sample may be regarded as a
random sample from a normal population. Hence the solution.

Problem 14# A soft-drink vending machine is set so that the amount of drink dispensed is a
random variable with a mean of 200 millilitres and a standard deviation of 15 millilitres’.
What is the probability that the average (mean) amount dispensed in a random sample size of
36 at least 204 millilitres?

Solution: The distribution of has the mean ( ) = 200 and the standard deviation ( )=
, and according to the central limit theorem, this distribution is approximately

normal. And Z= .

Then P(  204) = P(Z  1.6) = 0.5000 – 0.4452 = 0.0548 Hence the solution.

Problem 15# If two independent random sample of size n 1 = 7 and n2 = 13 are taken from a
normal population what is the probability that the variance of the first sample will be at least
three times as large that of the second sample?

Solution: F0.05(1 = 6, 2 =12) = 3 thus the desired probability is 0.05. Hence the solution.

Problem 16# The claim that the variance of a normal population is 2 = 21.3 is rejected if the
variance of a random sample of size 15 exceeds 39.74. What is the probability that the claim
will be rejected even though 2 = 21.3? [Ans.0025]

Solution: n = 15, 2 = 21.3, s2 = 39.74

2 =
And 20.025, 14 = 26.119
2 > 2
Therefore, probability that the claim will be rejected is 0.0025. Hence the solution.
Problem 17# An electronic company manufactures resistors that have a mean resistance of
100  and a standard deviation of 10 . The distribution of resistance is normal. Find the
probability that a random sample 25 resistors will have an average resistance less than 95 ?
[Ans. 0.0062]
Solution: n = 25, =100 ,  = 10  so ( ) = 100 and ( ) =

For = 95, z =
Hence P( < 95) = P(Z < -2.5) = F(-2.5) = 1- F(2.5) = 1 – 0.9938 = 0.0062
Hence he solution.

Problem 18# The mean voltage of a battery is 15 volt and s.d.is 0.2 volt. What is the
probability that four such batteries connected in series will have a combined voltage of 60.8
or more volts? [Ans. 0.0228]

Solution: Let, mean voltage of a batteries 1,2,3,4 be , , , the mean of the series of
the four batteries connected is
( + + + )= ( )+( )+( )+( ) = 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 60
( + + + )= =

Let X be the combined voltage of the series. When x = 60.8, z =

Then the probability that the combined voltage is more than 60.8 is given by P(X  60.8) =
P(Z  2) = 0.0228. Hence the solution.
Problem 19# Certain ball bearings have a mean weight of 5.02 ounces and standard
deviation of 0.30 ounces. Find the probability that a random sample of 100 ball bearings will
have a combined weight between 496 and 500 ounces? [Ans. 0.2318]

Solution:  = 5.02,  = 0.30, n = 100

( ) =  = 5.02 ,  ( ) =

P(4.96 < < 0.5) = P

= F(- 0.66) – F(- 2)

= F(2) – F(0.66)
= 0.9772 – 0.7454
= 0.2318
Hence the solution.

Problem 20# A manufacturer of fuses claims that with a 20% overload, the fuses will blow
in 12.40 minutes on the average. To test the claim, a sample of 20 of the fuses was subjected
to a 20% overload, and the times it took them to blow had a mean of 10.63 minutes and a s.d.
of 2.48 minutes. If it can be assumed that the data constitute a random sample from a normal
population, do they tend to support or refute the manufacturer’s claim? [Ans.- 3.19]
Solution: n = 20, =12.40, = 10.63, s = 2.48 then t =

Date refutes the producer’s claim since t = - 3.19 < - 2.861 with probability  = 0.005.
Hence the solution.

Problem 21# show that for random samples of size n from a normal population with the

variance 2, the sampling distribution of 2 has the mean 2 and the variance ?

Solution: We have 

Hence the solution.

Problem 22# If S12 and S22 are the variances of independent random samples of size n 1 = 10
and n2 = 15 from normal population with equal variances find P(S12/ S22 < 4.03)?[Ans. 0.99]

Solution: Let and P = 1- P(F > 4.03) with 9 and 14 d.o.f.

From table F0.01, 9.14 = 4.03 then the probability = 1 – 0.01 = 0.99 Hence the solution.

Problem 23# A random sample of size n = 25 from a normal population has the mean =
47 and the standard deviation  = 7. It we base our decision on the statistic, can we say that
the given information supports the conjecture that the mean of the population is  = 42?
Solution: f = since, 3.57 exceeds t0.005, 24 = 2.797 for  = 24
Clearly that the result is highly unlikely and conjecture is probably false.
Hence the solution.

Problem 24# The claim that the variance of a normal population is 2 =4 is to be rejected if
the variance of a random sample of size 9 exceeds 7.7535. What is the probability that this
claim will be rejected even though 2 =4? [Ans. 0.5]

Solution: given 2 =4, n = 9, y =

P(y  2 (7.7535) = P(y  15.507) with 8 d.o.f. = 0.5 (table )

Hence the solution.
Problem 25# A random sample of size n = 12 from a normal population = 27.8 has the
mean and the variance 2 = 3.24. it we base our decision on the statistic can we say that the
given information supports the claim that the mean of the population is  = 28.5?[Ans.-1.347]
Solution: The statistic is since this is fairly small
and close to – t0, 10.11 the data tend to support the claim. Hence the solution.

Problem 26# The distribution of annual earnings of all bank letters with five years
experience is skewed negatively. This distribution has a mean of Rs.19000 and a standard
deviation of Rs.2000. If we draw a random sample of 30 tellers, what is the probability that
the earnings will average more than Rs.19750 annually? [Ans. 0.0202]

Solution: ,  = 19000, n = 30,  = 2000, standard error of the mean (x) = =

consider the standard normal probability distribution, as follows: Z =

Now P(earnings will average more than Rs.19750 annually)

= P(
= P(Z > 2.05) = 1- P(Z  2.05)
= 1- F(2.05)
= 1 – 0.9798 = 0.0202
Therefore we have determined that there is slightly more than a 2% chance of average
earnings more than Rs.19750 annually in a group of 30 letters. Hence the solution.

Problem 27# If a gallon can of paint covers on the average 513.3 square feet(Ft 2.) with a
standard deviation(s.d.) of 31.5 square feet(Ft 2.). what is the probability that the mean area
covered by a sample of 40 of these 1 gallon cans will be anywhere from 510 to 520 square
feet(Ft2.)? [Ans.0.6553]

Solution: n = 40,  = 513.3 and  = 31.5

Let Z =

And Z =

P(510 < < 520) = P(-0.66 < Z < 1.34) = F(1.34)- F(-0.66) = F(1.34) – 1 +F(0.66)
= 0.9099 - 1 + 0.7454
= 0.6553
We obtain the probability 0.6553 note that if turned out to be much less than 513.3, say less
than 500 this might cause serious doubt whether the sample actually came from a population
having  = 513.3 and  = 31.5. the probability of obtaining such a small value i.e., Z < -2.67
is only 0.0038. Hence the solution.
Problem 28# A random sample of 100 is taken from an infinite population having the mean
 = 76 and the variance = 2 = 256. Find the probability that will be between 75 and 78?
[Ans. 0.6268]
Solution: n = 100,  = 76 and  = 256
P(75 < < 78) = P ( = P(-0.625 < Z < 1.25)
= F(1.25) – F(-0.625)
= F(1.25) – 1 + F(0.625)
= 0.8944 – 1 + 0.7324
= 0.6268
Hence the solution.

Problem 29# If two independent random samples of size n 1 = 13 and n2 = 7 are taken from a
normal population. What is the probability that the variance of the first sample will be atleast
four times as that of the second sample? [Ans. 4.00]

Solution: Given n1 = 13 and 1= n1 – 1 = 12 ; N2 = 7 and 2= n2 – 1 = 6

S12 = 4S22 Now F = = This value of F follows

F-distribution with 1= n1 – 1 = 12 and 2= n2 – 1 = 6 degrees of freedom Hence from tables
we get F0.05 (12,6) = 4.00 Hence the required probability is 0.05. Hence the solution.

Problem 30# If two independent random samples of size n1 = 26 and n2 = 8 are taken from a
normal population. What is the probability that the variance of the second sample will be
atleast 2.4 times as that of the first sample? [Ans. 0.05]

Solution: Given n1 = 20 and n2 = 8, 1= 19 and 2= 7

S12 = (2.4)S22
Now F (19,7) = 2.4   = 0.05
Hence the solution.

Problem 31# If the actual amount of instant coffee which a filing machine puts into “6-
ounce” jars is r. v. having a normal distribution with s.d. 0.05 ounce and if only 3% of the jars
are to contain less than 6 ounces of coffee, what must be the mean fill of these jars?
[Ans. =6.094]
Solution: Let X be the actual amount of coffee put into the jars, X  N(, 0.05)
Given P(X < 6) = 0.03
P(- < = 0.03
P(- <
0.5- P(0 < Z <

P(0 < Z < from table of areas P(0 < Z < 1.808) = 0.47

Implies   = 6.094 ounces. Hence the solution.

Problem 32# A manufacturer of a certain type of synthetic fishing line has found from long
experience of testing that the breaking strength of his product has an approximate normal
distribution with a mean of 30 pounds( lbs. ) and a standard deviation of 4 pounds( lbs. ). A
time and money saving change in the manufacture process of the product is tried. A sample
of 25 testing length pieces of the new process line is taken and tested with a resulting sample
mean of 28 pounds(lbs.) What is the probability of obtaining a mean as low as 28 if the
process has had no harmful effect on breaking strength? [Ans. 0.006]

Solution: Let X be the breaking strength of a randomly selected piece of line and if

X  N(30, 4) and n = 25,  (or )=30,  (or s) =

Then P(  28) = P( = P(Z  - 2.5) = F( - 2.5) = 1 – F(2.5) = 1 – 0.9938 =

0.006 Thus there is a very small chance of obtaining a sample mean as low as 28 if ther had
been no change in the quality of the line due to the new process.Hence the solution.
Problem 33# An Urn contains 1000 white and 2000 black balls. If X denotes the number of
white balls when 300 balls are drawn without replacement, then find P(180 < X < 120)?
[Ans. 0.9858]
Solution: clearly X  B.Dn=(300, 1/3)
If p = P(the ball drawn is white) = 1/3
Mean  = np = 300 X 1/3 = 100
Variance = 2 = npq = 200 /3
Since n = 300 is large the required probability is

P(80 < Z < 120) = P( = P(-2.45 < Z < 2.45) = 0.9858

Hence the solution.

Problem 34# Two movie theatres compete for 900 visitors. Suppose each visitor chooses one
of the two balls independent of the choice of the other visitors; how many seats should each
theatre have so that the probability of turning away any visitor for lack of seats is less than
1%? [Ans. 489]

Solution: clearly X  B.Dn=(900, 1/2)

If p = P(i=1 to 900) = 1/2
Mean  = np = 900 X 1/2 = 450
Variance = 2 = npq = 900 /2 X 2 = 225
Since n = 900 is large the required probability is a N(0,1) random variable
Now
P(-2.58 
P( = P(-2.45 < Z < 2.45) = 0.9858. So the required number of seats is
489. Hence the solution.

Problem 35# Let X be a random variable where x is unknown as x2 = 0.25 i.e.,1/4 Find out
how large a random sample must be taken in order that the probability will be at test 0.95 and
the sample mean will lies within 0.25 of the population mean? [Ans. 80]

Solution: we have x2 = 0.25,  = 0.25 and 1 -

Therefore 0.05 > and n > = Hence the

solution.

Problem 36# If a random sample of size n is selected from the finite population that consists
of the integers 1,2,3,. . . ,N show that (i) the mean is (ii) the variance of is

(iii) the mean and the variance of Y = n. are E(Y) = and the

var(Y) = ?

Solution: (i)

 =

(ii) Variance(2) =

2 =

Var( ) =
 (iii)y =

Var(Y) =

 Var(Y) =

Problem 37# How many different samples of size n =3 can be drawn from a finite population
of size (a) N =12 (b) N = 20 (c) N = 50 [Ans. a) 220, b) 1140 c) 19600]

Solution: a)12C3 = ; b) 20C3 = ;

c) 50C3 = ;
Hence the solution.

Problem 38# What is the probability of each possible sample if (i) a random sample of size n
=4 is to be drawn from a finite population of size N = 12 (ii) a random sample of size n = 5 is
to be drawn from a finite population of size N = 22? [Ans. a) 1/495 b) 1/77]

Solution: (i) (ii)

Hence the solution.

Problem 39# Independent random samples of size n1 = 30 and n2 = 50 are taken from two
normal populations having the means 1 = 78 and 2 = 78 and the variances 12 and 22. Find
the probability that the mean of the first sample will exceed that of the second sample by at
least 4.8? [Ans. 0.2743]

Solution: clearly  = 78 – 75 = 3

 =

P( > 3) = P(Z > = P(Z > 0.6) = 0.2743.

Hence the solution.

Problem 40# If S1 and S2 are the variances of independent random samples of size n 1 = 61

and n2 = 31 from normal population with 12 = 12 and 22 = 18 Find

[Ans. 0.05]
Solution: Let

Consider

= P(F > 1.74) for 60 + 30 d.o.f. = 0.05 Hence the solution.

Chapter 2 Objective bits III
Sampling Distributions by N. V. Nagendram

01. A sample consists of ___________________________ [ Ans. any part of population]

02. Another name of population is ___________________ [Ans. Universe]

03. The number of possible samples of size n out of N population units without replacement
is ___________________ [Ans. NCn]

04. The number of possible samples of size n from a population of N units with replacement

is ___________________ [Ans. ]

05. Probability of anyone sample of size n being drawn out of N units is

___________________ [Ans. ]

06. Probability of including a specified unit/ item in a sample of size n selected out of N units
is___________________ [Ans. ]

07. Having sample observations x1, x2, x3, . . ., xn the formula for variance is

___________________ [Ans. s2 = ]

08. Sample mean formula ___________________ [Ans. = ]

09. is called ___________________ [Ans. Finite population correction factor]

10. The discrepencies between sample estimate and population parameter is the
___________________ [Ans. Sampling Error]
11. If the observations recorded on five sampled items are 3,4,5,6,7 the sample variance is
___________________ [Ans. 2.5]

12. A population consisting of all real numbers is an example of [Ans. An infinite population]

13. Standard deviation of all possible estimate from samples of fixed size is called
___________________ [Ans. Standard error]

14. A population parameter is a ___________________ associated with the entire population

[Ans. descriptive or statistical]
15. If is the mean of a random sample size n taken from a population nearly normal having

mean  and the finite variance 2 then Z =

Is a random variable following as n tends to infinite i.e. n 

[Ans. standard normal distribution]

16. Standard error of the statistic sample mean ___________________ [Ans. ]

17. If x1, x2, x3, . . ., xn constitute a random sample from an infinite population with the mean

 and the variance 2 then ( ) = ____________ and 2( )= _____________[Ans. , ]

18. If is the mean of a random sample from a finite population size N with the mean  and

the variance 2 then ( ) = ____________ and 2( )= ______ [Ans. , ]

19. t1- = __________________ [Ans. - t]

20. F1-(1, 2) = ________________ [Ans. ]

Chapter 1 PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION Tutorial – 16
Probability Density Function Problems REVISION by: N.V.Nagendram

Problem #1 If E(X) = 1, E(X2) = 4, find the mean and variance of Y = 2x -3? [Ans. Var = 12]

Problem #2 A continuous random variable X has the p.d.f. given by f(x) = kx 2, 0  x  1.

Find the value of k. with this value of k find P( x < ) and P( x  )? [Ans. , ]
Problem #3 The probability density p(x) of a continuous random variable is given by
p(x) = y0 e-| x | , -  < x < , prove that y0 = find the mean and variance of the distribution?
[Ans. var = 2]
Problem #4 A continuous random variable X has the p.d.f. given by
f(x) = kx, 0x1
= k, 1x2
= -x+3k, 2  x  3

=0 otherwise. Find the value of k. Also calculate P(X  1.5)? [Ans. ]

Problem #5 Given that f(x) = is a probability distribution function for a random variable

X, that can take on the values x = 0,1,2,3 and 4 (i) find k (ii) mean and variance of x?
[Ans. =0.839 2 = 1.168]
Problem #6 (a) is the function f(x), defined as follows, a density function?
f(x) = 0 x<2
= (3 + 2x) -2  x  4
= 0, x>4
(b) Find the probability that a variate having this density will fall in the
interval 2  x  3? [Ans. a) 1b) ]
Problem #7 Find the constant k so that function F(x) is defined as follows may be a density
function: f(x) = axb
=0 elsewhere. Find also the cumulative distribution
function of the random variable X and K satisfies the requirements for f(x) to be a density
function? [Ans. k = b-a, F(x) = 1]
Chapter 1 PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION Tutorial – 17
Probability Density Function Problems REVISION by: N.V.Nagendram

Problem #8 If X is a continuous random variable with p. d. f. given by

F(x) = kx 0x2
= 2k 2x4
= -kx + 6k 4x6
Find the value of k and mean value of X. [Ans. k= , =E(X) = 3]
Problem #9 (a) verify that the following is a distribution function:
F(x) = 0 x<-a
= ( +1) -a  x  a
=1 x>1
(b) show that F(x) =0 -<x<0
= 1- e – x 0  x <  is possible distribution
function and find the density function? [Ans. a)1 b) 1]

Problem #10 A random process gives measurements X between 0 and 1 with a probability
density function f(x) = 12 x3 – 21 x2 + 10 x, 0  x  1
= 0 otherwise. (i) find P(X  ) and P(X > ) (ii) Find a number

k such that P( X  k) = ? [Ans. a) ,b) , k = 0.45]

Problem #11 The probability distribution function of a random variable X is
f(x) =x 0x1
=2–x 1x2
=0 x2
compute the cumulative distribution function of X? [Ans. F(x) = 1]

Problem #12 The frequency function of a continuous random variable is given by f(x) = y0 x
(2 – x), 0  x  2. Find the value of y0, mean and variance of X ? [Ans. y0=3/4, var=1/5]

***************************************************************************