BES Tutorial Sample Solutions, S1/13

WEEK 7 TUTORIAL EXERCISES (To be discussed in the week starting

April 22)
1. From several years records, a fish market manager has determined that the
weight of deep sea bream sold in the market (X) is approximately normally
distributed with a mean of 420 grams and a standard deviation of 80 grams.
Assuming this distribution will remain unchanged in the future, calculate the
expected proportions of deep sea bream sold over the next year weighing
(a)

between 300 and 400 grams.

300
300
400

80
1.5

0
0.4332
0.3345
(b)

between 300 and 500 grams.

300
300
500

400

420

more than 600 grams.

80

0.5
0.5

420

2.25
0
0.4878

420
80

600

600

0.25

500

420

0
1.5
0.4332 0.3413
0.7745
(c)

80

0.25
1.5
0
0.0987

80
1.5

420

2.25
0.0122

2. In a certain large city, household annual incomes are considered

approximately normally distributed with a mean of $40,000 and a standard
deviation of $6,000. What proportion of households in the city have an
annual income over $30,000? If a random sample of 60 households were
selected, how many of these households would we expect to have annual
incomes between $35,000 and $45,000?

30000

40000, 6000 )

30000 40000
6000
1.67
0.5
0
1.67
0.5 0.4525
0.9525

So 95.25% of households in the city have annual incomes greater than

$30,000.

45000 40000
35000 40000
35000
45000
6000
6000
0.83
0.83
2 0
0.83
2 0.2967
0.5934

Therefore we expect 0.59346036 households in the sample to have annual
incomes between $35,000 and $45,000.

3. What is the 25th percentile of the normal distribution N(10, 9)? Hint: Find
the value, z, of a standardized normal random variable, Z, that is such that
0.25 and then unstandardize to get the equivalent value for a
N(10,9) variate.

Let x be the required percentile. First find z, the 25th percentile of a standard
normal.

0.25

0.25




0
0.5 .25 0.25

10,9

0.67

10
3

0.67

25

0.67
7.99

4. In a certain city it is estimated that 40% of households have access to the

internet. A company wishing to sell services to internet users randomly
chooses 150 households in the city and sends them advertising material. For
the households contacted:
(a) Calculate the probability that less than 60 households have internet
access?
Let X be the number of households contacted that have internet access. Then
assume X is a binomial random variable with n=150 and p=0.4. Because n is
large we can use the normal approximation to the binomial where:

150 0.4 60
1
150 0.4 0.6 36

Thus incorporating the continuity correction we need to find:

60
59
59.5
59.5 60

6
0.083
0.5
0
0.083
0.5 0.0319 0.4681
(b)

Calculate the probability that between 50 and 100 (inclusive)

households have internet access?
50

100

49.5
100.5
100.5 60
49.5 60

6
6
1.75
6.75
0
1.75
0
6.75
0.4599 0.5 0.9599

(c) There is a probability of 0.9 that the number of households with

internet access equals or exceeds what value?

0.9

0.5

0.5 60
0.9
6
60.5
0.4
6
60.5
1.28
52.82
6

0.9

There is a 90% chance that the number of households with internet access is
52 or more.

5. The manufacturer of a particular handmade article takes place in two stages.
The time taken for the first stage is approximately normally distributed with
a mean of 30 minutes and a standard deviation of 4 minutes. The time taken
for the second stage is also approximately normally distributed, but with a
mean of 10 minutes and a standard deviation of 3 minutes. The times to
complete the two stages of production are independently distributed. Note
that the sum of two normally distributed random variables is also normally
distributed.

Let X1 be the time taken for the first stage and X2 the time taken for the second
stage. Then Y = X1 + X2 is the time taken to complete an article.

(a) What are the mean and standard deviation of the total time to
manufacture the article?

30

10

40

4
3
25
5
~ 40,25
Note that independence is used in the calculation of the Var(Y)

(b) What proportion of articles will be completed in 35-45 minutes?

35

45

35
1

40
5

2
0
0.6826

45
1

40
5

6. Project Review: Be prepared to discuss the progress that you have made
with the Project. You should at least have some summary statistics and ideas
for useful graphical display of the data