Assignment 1 for STAT 2550-001 2016

Due: 7pm, June 1, 2016

Please put your assignment in the assignment box
besides the general office (same floor as lab)
(1) [10] The following data is the ammonia levels for eight days during
afternoon drive time:

1.53 1.5 1.37 1.51 1.55 1.42 1.41 1.48

a. Find the median, variance and standard deviation of the ammonia

levels. Interpret these values.
b. Suppose the standard deviation of the daily ammonia levels during
morning drive time is 1.45, which time, morning or afternoon drive
time, has the more variable ammonia levels?

(2) [10] A buyer for a lumber company must decide whether to buy a
piece of land containing 5000 pine trees. If 1000 of the 5000 trees are at
least 40 feet tall, the buyer will purchase the land; otherwise he won’t.
The owner of the land reports that the heights of the trees have a mean
of 30 feet and a standard deviation of 3 feet. Should the buyer buy the
land? (Hint: Use Chebyshev’s rule)

(3) [16]In one version of cards game played by a dealer and a player,
2 cards of a standard 52-card bridge deck are dealt to the player and
2 cards to the dealer. Assume that drawing an ace and a face card is
called a blackjack. If the player draws a blackjack while the dealer does
not, the player wins. If both draw a blackjack, a tie occurs.
a. What’s the probability that the player will draw a blackjack?
b. What’s the probability that the player will win with a blackjack?
(Hint:use conditional probability, condition on player will draw a black-
jack)

(4) [12] Answer the following questions:

a. For a sample of size 4, if x1 − x̄ = 6, x2 − x̄ = −4, x3 − x̄ = −3,
what’s the sample variance?

1
 b. Three positive integers a < b < c have median 11, mean equals 9
and range 10. Find a, b, c.

(5) [12] A professor hands out a list of 10 questions, of which 5 will be

tested in an oral examination. One student prepared for only 7 out of
the 10 on the list. Suppose the professor randomly chooses 5 questions
from the 10 for the exam.
a. What’s the probability that the student will be prepared for all the
5 questions appearing in the exam?
b. What’s the probability that the student will be prepared for fewer
than 3 questions appearing in the exam?
c. What’s the probability that the student will be prepared for exactly
4 questions appearing in the exam?

(6) [12] The following table summarizes the skin colours and position of
368 NBA players in 2014. Suppose that an NBA player is randomly
selected from that years player pool.

Guard Forward Center Total

white 26 30 28 84
black 128 122 34 284
Total 154 152 62 368

a. What’s the probability that the player is white and plays center?
b. What’s the probability that the player is not a center?
c. What’s the probability that the player is white or plays center?
d. Are the events white player and center independent?

(7) [10] Suppose events B1 , B2 , B3 are mutually exclusive and comple-

mentary events such that P (B1 ) = 0.2, P (B2 ) = 0.15, P (B3 ) = 0.65.
Consider another event A such that P (A|B1 ) = 0.4, P (A|B2 ) = 0.25,
P (A|B3 ) = 0.6. Use Bayes’s rule to find P (B1 |A), P (B2 |A), P (B3 |A).

(8) [16] Dice game ”Craps”:

player starts by rolling two fair dice. If the sum of the two numbers
show on the dice is 7 or 11, player wins. If the sum is 2 or 3 (called

2
craps), player loses. For any other outcomes, the player continues to
throw the dice untile the original roll outcome occcurs (player wins) or
untile a 7 occurs (player loses).
a. find the probability of player wins on the first roll.
b. find the probability of player loses on teh first roll.
c. if the player throws a total of 4 on the 1st roll, what’s the probability
that the game ends on the next roll?
d. what’s the probability of game ends on the second roll given that
player throws a total of 4 in the 1st roll?