Official (Closed), Sensitive (Normal)

OFFICIAL (CLOSED), NON-SENSITIVE MS9612

SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC
2021/2022 SEMESTER TWO EXAMINATION

Polytechnic Foundation Programme

Foundation Year Full-Time

FOUNDATION MATHEMATICS Time Allowed: 2 hours

Instructions to Candidates

1. The examination rules set out on the last page of the answer booklet are to be complied
with.

2. This paper consists of THREE sections:

Section A: 5 Multiple Choice Questions (10 marks)

Answer ALL questions.

Section B: 7 Questions (50 marks)

The total mark of the questions in this section is 70 marks. You may answer
as many questions as you wish. The marks from all questions you answered
will be added, but the maximum mark you may obtain from this section is
50 marks.

Section C: 3 Questions (40 marks)

Answer ALL questions.

3. All solutions are to be written in the answer booklet provided.

4. Unless otherwise stated, please leave all your answers in 3 significant figures.

5. Except for sketches, graphs and diagrams, no solutions are to be written in pencil.

6. A formulae list is given at the back of the paper.

7. This examination paper consists of 8 printed pages (inclusive of this cover page).

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Section A (10 marks)

Multiple Choice Questions
Answer all five questions. Each question carries 2 marks.

Please tick your answers in the MCQ boxes behind the front cover of the answer booklet.
No marks will be deducted for incorrect answers.

A1. If 90 θ 180 , which of the following is true?

(a) sin θ cos θ  0

(b) sin θ tan θ  0

(c) cos θ tan θ  0

(d) cot θ tan θ  0

  x1    x2  

A2. Given the vectors OA =   and OB =   , AB will be equal to
 y1   y2 

 x1 + x2 
(a)  
 y1 + y2 

x +x 
(b) − 1 2 
 y1 + y2 

 x1 − x2 
(c)  
 y1 − y2 

 x2 − x1 
(d)  
 y2 − y1 

A3. A spinner is divided into 8 equal sections numbered 1 through 8. If the spinner is spun once,
what is the probability that it will land on a number greater than 5?

3
(a)
8
1
(b)
4
5
(c)
8
3
(d)
4

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A4. The number of ways that 4 students can be selected from a class of 21 to play 4 different roles
in a short play is
(a) 21 4 P

(b) 21 C4

21!
(c)
4!

(d) 21× 4

A5. After a profitable year, every employee in a certain company received a pay raise of $50 in
their monthly salary. Which of the following statements is true?
(a) The median monthly salary remains unchanged.

(b) The mean monthly salary increased by $50.

(c) The standard deviation of the monthly salaries increased by $50.

(d) The interquartile range of the monthly salaries increased by $50.

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Section B (50 marks)

The total marks of the questions in this section is 70 marks. You may answer as many questions
as you wish. The marks from all questions you have answered will be added, but the maximum
mark you may obtain from this section is 50 marks.

11
B1. Given that tan x = − and sin x is positive. Without evaluating angle x, find the
6
exact values of
(a) cos x (4 marks)
(b) sin x (2 marks)
(c) cot x csc x (4 marks)

B2. (a) Solve sec 2 x + 2 tan x =

0 for 0° ≤ x ≤ 360° . (6 marks)
sin 2 A
(b) Prove that = sec A − cos A . (4 marks)
cos A

q 
2  4  
B3. Given that u    , v    and w   1  .
1 6   
2 
(a) Find 7v – 2u. (4 marks)
(b) Find v . (2 marks)

(c) Given that u is parallel to w, find the value of q. (4 marks)

B4. A utility company collects daily electricity usage (in kilowatt-hours) from different
households over a period of 13 days. The following data set T represents the daily electricity
usage for the past 13 days.
T = {20, 25, 25, 20, 25, 30, 35, 30, 40, 45, 55, 50, 185}

(a) Rearrange the daily electricity usage T from least to most. Then, calculate the
mean, median, and mode of the daily electricity usage for the past 13 days. (5 marks)
(b) Hence, which measures of central tendency best describe this data set,
and why do you think it is appropriate? (2 marks)
(c) Find the interquartile range. (Hint: IQR = Q3-Q1) (3 marks)

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B5. A supermarket tracks the monthly sales of five different product categories (e.g., Fruits,
Vegetables, Dairy, Snacks, and Beverages). The data is shown in a bar graph where
each bar represents the total sales (in dollars) for each category.

(a) Which category had the highest sales? (1 mark)

(b) What is the total sales amount across all five product categories? (2 marks)
(c) Compare the sales figure of dairy and beverages, which category had higher sales,
and by how much? (3 marks)
(d) If the supermarket aims to boost its sales by targeting the least popular category,
which category should they focus on based on the data? (1 mark)
(e) Based on the information provided in the bar graph, what can be inferred from the
sales data regarding consumer preferences? Do any specific product categories
seem to be more popular than others? What recommendations could you make to
the supermarket based on this data? (3 marks)

B6. A local bakery offers 6 different types of cupcakes for an upcoming event: vanilla,
chocolate, red velvet, lemon, carrot, and strawberry.

(a) The bakery plans to create a box of 3 assorted cupcakes. How many different
combinations of cupcakes can be selected for the box? (4 marks)

(b) If the bakery wants to arrange 3 cupcakes from the 6 types of cupcakes for a
special display, how many different arrangements can they create? (4 marks)

(c) If the bakery wants to include exactly one chocolate cupcake in the box of 3
assorted cupcakes, how many different combinations can they create? (2 marks)

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B7. From past experience, it is known that 7% of a certain component produced from an
engineering company is substandard. The company has installed a checking system
which automatically rejects substandard components. However, the checking system is
not totally reliable. There is a probability of 0.05 that it will fail to reject a substandard
component and a probability of 0.1 that it will reject a satisfactory one.

(a) Construct a probability tree diagram. (3 marks)

(b) Find the probability that a component will be accepted by the checking system.

(3 marks)

(c) What proportion of components accepted by the checking system are substandard?

(4 marks)

Section C (40 marks)

Answer ALL questions.
C1. A cohort comprising of two groups of students, Group A and Group B, sat for a common
Mathematics test. The examiner randomly selected 40 test scores from the cohort, with an
equal number from Group A and Group B. The sample test scores are plotted in the below
boxplot.

(a) Identify the population, sample and sampling method used in this context. (3 marks)

(b) Compare the test scores of students in Group A and Group B, by making reference to

(i) an appropriate measure of center.

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(ii) an appropriate measure of dispersion.

(iii) the shape of the distribution.

(6 marks)

(c) The lecturer decided to add in the test scores of two other students, Adam and Betty, to
his sample. After doing so, he finds that the average test score of students in his sample
has increased from 72 marks to 73 marks. Given that the lecturer’s new sample size is
42 and Adam scored 10 marks higher than Betty,

(i) how many marks did Adam and Betty each score for the test? (7 marks)

(ii) Would the standard deviation of the sample decrease, remain the same or increase

with the addition of Adam and Betty’s scores? Explain why. (2 marks)

C2. A 500N box rests on a rough slope as shown below. The incline of the slope is 50°.
Find the magnitude of the following forces:
(a) the components of W along the x- and y-axes (6 marks)
(b) the normal reaction force N. (2 marks)
(c) the friction, f (2 marks)

1 2
C3. Suppose P ( A ) = and P ( A ∪ B ) =, where A and B are two independent events in the
5 3
same sample space.

(a) Calculate P ( A | B ) . (2 marks)

(b) Find P(B). (4 marks)

(c) Are A and B mutually exclusive events ? Explain your answer. (3 marks)

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(d) Find P ( ( A ∩ B ) | ( A ∪ B ) ) . (3 marks)

END OF PAPER

Formulae for MS9612

1
Area of triangle ABC = ab sin C
2
a b c
Law of Sines: = =
sin A sin B sin C

Law of Cosines: a 2 = b 2 + c 2 − 2bc cos A

Chebyshev’s theorem:
% of data lying within k standard deviations of the mean ≥ 1 − 12  ×100%
k 

Coefficient of variation:
s σ
COV = ⋅100% or COV = ⋅100%
x µ

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