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AP Statistics

Random Variables

Review

1) Using the notation C = continuous and D = discrete, indicate whether each of the random variables are discrete
or continuous.
a) The number of defective lights in your school's main hallway (Discrete)
b) The barometric pressure at midnight (Continuous)
c) The number of staples left in a stapler (Discrete)
d) The number of sentences in a short story (Discrete)
e) The average oven temperature during the cooking of a turkey (Continuous)
f) The number of lightning strikes during a thunderstorm (Discrete)

2) At the College of Warm & Fuzzy, good grades in math are very easy to come by. The grade distribution is given
in the table below (Assume A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0):
Grade
Proportion

0.30

0.35

0.25

0.09

0.01

b) P x 3 =1 P x 3 = 1 0.35 = 0.65
c) P x 3 = 1 P (X = 4) = 1 0.30 = .70
d) P x 3 = 0.35

a) P x 3 = P(X =0) + P(X = 1) + P(X = 2) = (0.25+0.09+0.01) = 0.35

3) The density curve for a continuous random variable is shown below.

Use this curve to find the following probabilities:
Find the equation of the line that restricts the triangle first!
f(x) = -1/8x + , use this equation to find the height at each interval
of the triangle. Calculate the area of triangles and just subtract off
regions not needed. Area of Triangle = bh
a) P( X < 1) = 1 P(X >1) = 1 9/16 =7/16
b) P (2 < X < 3) = 4/16 1/16 = 3/16
c) P (X 3) = 1/16

h = 3/8
h = 2/8
h = 1/8

4) The famous physicist, Ernest Rutherford, was a pioneer in the study of

radioactivity using electricity. In one experiment he observed the number of
particles reaching a counter during time 1700 intervals of 7.5 seconds each. The
number of intervals that had 0 4 particles reaching the counter is given in the
table below.

Number of time

particles

intervals

57

period.

203

a) Fill in the table below with the estimated probability distribution of x, and

383

525

532

Let the random variable x = number of particles counted in a 7.5 second time

sketch a probability histogram for x.

Probability distribution

Probability histogram

P(x)

0.0335

0.1194

0.4

0.2253

0.3

0.3088

0.2

0.3129

0.1

b) Using the estimated probabilities in part (a), estimate the following:

i) P x

1 , the probability that 1 particle was counted in 7.5 seconds. = 0.1194

ii) P x

3 the probability that fewer than 3 particles were counted. = 0.6797

5) At a large university students have either a final exam or a final paper at the end of a course. The table below
lists the distribution of the number of final exams that students at the university will take, and their associated
probabilities.
X
P(X)

0.05

0.25

0.40

0.30

What are the mean and standard deviation of this distribution?

E(X) = 0(0.05) + (1)(0.25) + (2)(.40) + (3)(0.30) = 1.95
VAR(X) =(0-1.95)2(0.05) + (1-1.95)2(0.25) + (2-1.95)2(.40) + (3-1.95)2(0.30) = .7475
SD(X) =SQRT(.7475) = 0.8646

6) Given independent random variables, X and Y, with means and standard deviations as shown in table, find the
mean and standard deviation of each of these newly defined variables (in terms of X and Y).
a) P = X 20
E(X) 20 = 60

SD (X ) 20 = 12

b) A = 2X 100

Mean

Stddev

VAR

80

12

144

12

E(2X-100) = 2E(X) 100 = 60 SD(2X 100) = SQRT( 22(VAR(X)) = SQRT(4*144)= 24

c) N = X + Y
E(X) +E(Y) = 80 + 12 = 92

SD(X +Y) = SQRT (VAR (X) + VAR (Y)) = SQRT (144) +SQRT (9) = 15

d) T = X Y
E(X) - E(Y) = 80 - 12 = 68

SD(X - Y) = SQRT (VAR (X) + VAR (Y)) = SQRT (144) +SQRT (9) = 15

g) R = X 5Y
SD(X 5Y) = SQRT (VAR(X) + 52 VAR(Y)) = SQRT((144) + 25*(9)) = 19.21

E(X) 5E(Y) = 80- 60 = 20

7) Suppose that vehicle speeds at an interstate location have a normal distribution with a mean equal to 70 mph and
standard deviation equal to 8 mph. What is likelihood that a police offer will observed a vehicle with a speed
exceeding of 80 mph?
X~N(70, 8) z

80 70
1.25
8

P(z > 1.25) = 0.1056

8) According to government data, 20% of employed women have never been married.
a) If 10 employed women are selected at random, what is the probability that exactly 2 have never been married?

10
X~B(10, .20) P(X = 2) = .20
2

.80
2

0.302 or binomdpdf (10, .2, 2)

b) That at most 2 have never been married?

P(X 2) = binomcdf(10, .20, 2) = 0.678
c) That at least 8 have been married.
At least 8 have been married means 8, 9, or 10 have been married. This means that 0, 1, 2 have not been married.
P(X 2) = 0.678

9) Camp Wee-O-Wee has found that 8% of young campers get poison ivy each season. If 273 children are
registered for the summer season, about how many can be expected to not get poison ivy. What would be an
abnormal number of campers getting poison ivy?
X~B (273, .08)

E(X) = (.08)(273)=21.84

X = SQRT(273*.08*.92) = 4.48

An abnormal number of campers getting poison ivy would be around 35 campers, as this would indicate we are 3
standard deviations above the mean.
Free Response
10) A carnival game offers a $120 cash prize for anyone who can break a balloon by throwing a dart at it. It costs
$10 to play and youre willing to spend up to $40 trying to win. You estimate that you have a 10% chance of hitting
the balloon on any throw.
a) Create a probability model, for the amount you will win. Assume that throws are independent of each other.
X = Winnings

$110

$100

$90

$80

-$40

P(X)

.10

(.9)(.1) = .09

(.9)2(.1) = .081

(.9)3(.1) = .0729

.94 =.6561

b) What is the expected amount you will win if you play the game?
E(X) = (110)(0.1) + (100)(0.09) + (90)(0.081) + (80)(0.0729) (40)(0.6561) = $6.88
The expected amount you will win playing this game 4 times is $6.88
c) What is the standard deviation of the expected amount you will win?
SQRT(VAR(X)=(110-6.88)2(0.1) + (100-6.88)2(0.09) + (90-6.88)2(0.081) + (80-6.88)2(0.0729) + (-40-6.88)2(0.6561)
)= $65.08 The standard deviation of your winnings will be $65.08

11) A tire manufacturer designed a new tread pattern for its all-weather tires. Repeated tests were conducted on
cars of approximately the same weight traveling at 60 miles per hour. The tests showed that the new tread
pattern enables the cars to stop completely in an average distance of 125 feet with a standard deviation of 6.5
feet and that the stopping distances are approximately normally distributed.
What is the probability that a car will stop greater than 130 feet?
X~N (125, 6.5)

130 125
.7692
6.5

P(z .7692)= .221

There is a 22.1% chance that randomly selected tire will stop a distance greater than 130 feet.

What is the probability that at least 2 cars out of 5 randomly selected cars in the study will stop in a distance that
is greater than the distance calculated in part (a) ?
Fixed number of cars, probability of success is constant, only possible outcomes or success and failure, and the
stopping of one car does not affect the stopping of another (independence).
X~B (5, 0.221) P(X 2 ) = 1 P (X 1 ) = .306
1 binomcdf(5, .221, 1) Since all assumptions for a binomial experiment are met, we can assume that 30.6% of cars
will stop in a distance that is greater than 130 feet.
What is the probability that a randomly selected sample of 5 cars in the study will have a mean stopping distance
of at least 130 feet?
The expected value for a binomial experiment is calculated by np E(X) = (5)(.221) = 1.105

12) A random sample of married couples was selected from a large population of married couples.

Heights of married men are approximately normally distributed with mean 70 inches and standard deviation 3
inches.

Heights of married women are approximately normally distributed with mean 65 inches and standard deviation
2.5 inches.

Suppose that a married man is selected independently at random from all men and a married woman is selected
independently at random from all women.
Let D represent the random difference between the mans height and the womens height.
a) What is the mean (expected value) and standard deviation for difference between a randomly selected married
man and a randomly selected married woman?
Let M = Men and W = Women
E(M W) =E(M) E(W) = 70 65 = 5 inches
VAR(M W) = VAR(M) + VAR(W) = 9 + 6.25 = 15.25
SD(M W) = SQRT(15.25) = 3.905

b) What proportion of men are shorter than women?

P(M < W) = P(M W < 0) = z

05
1.280 P(z < -1.280) = .100
3.905

About 10% of men in the population are shorter than women.