Department of Statistical Sciences, UCT
STA1000P 2023
Week 1 Assignment
Due Date: 5pm Friday 24th November 2023
This assignment must be submitted online before the due date. Ensure that you enter all real
numbers correct to THREE decimal places, unless otherwise stated. Integer answers should
be entered with NO decimal places.
An octahedron and a dodecahedron are two of the five platonic solids. They have 8 and 12
faces respectively and each solid has faces of equal size with equal angles between them.
Therefore, if a die is created from these solids (each face is numbered) and tossed there is an
equal probability of observing any of the possible values. Note that a regular die is a cube,
another one of the platonic solids.
The two die are now tossed simultaneously and the face values are observed. Denote the
value on the octahedron by 𝐴𝐴 and the value on the dodecahedron by 𝐵𝐵. Let the variable 𝑋𝑋
denote the sum of the two values, i.e. 𝑋𝑋 = 𝐴𝐴 + 𝐵𝐵. Use an Excel spreadsheet to tabulate all
the possible observations of 𝑋𝑋 and answer the following questions:
1. What is the probability that 12 ≤ 𝑋𝑋 ≤ 16?
2. Find Pr(𝑋𝑋 = 8).
Now let 𝑌𝑌 = 𝐵𝐵 − 𝐴𝐴.
3. Find Pr(𝑌𝑌 > 0).
4. The mode is defined as the value which occurs most frequently. How many modal
values does 𝑌𝑌 have?
A class of 120 students had the option to register for mathematics (𝑀𝑀), statistics (𝑆𝑆), both
� ) = 0.25, Pr(𝑆𝑆 ∩ 𝑀𝑀
subjects or neither. It is known that Pr(𝑀𝑀 � ) = 0.15 and that 58 students
registered for both subjects.
5. How many students registered for neither subject?
� ∪ 𝑆𝑆̅).
6. Find Pr(𝑀𝑀
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7. Let 𝐴𝐴 = {𝑥𝑥|8 < 𝑥𝑥 ≤ 20}, 𝐵𝐵 = {𝑥𝑥|7 ≤ 𝑥𝑥 < 17} and 𝐶𝐶 = {𝑥𝑥|𝑥𝑥 < 13}, where 𝑥𝑥 ∈ ℤ, i.e.
all values are integers. What is the highest value in the set ����������
(𝐴𝐴̅ ∪ 𝐶𝐶) ∩ 𝐵𝐵?
A committee of 8 people consisting of 3 men and 5 women are lining up next to each other
for a photograph.
8. In how many different ways can they be arranged for the photo?
9. How many arrangements are possible if a male has to stand at both ends of the line?
10. In how many ways can a subcommittee of four people be chosen if it has to contain at
least 1 male?
The rugby fan base of a certain city support rugby teams as follows:
• 33% support the Cheetahs; 60% of the support is male
• 16% support the Lions; 66% of the support is male
• 23% support the Sharks; 50% of the support is female
• 28% support the Stormers; 55% of the support is female
11. Calculate the probability that a randomly selected supporter is male and supports the
Stormers.
12. What is the probability that a randomly selected supporter will be male?
13. If a randomly selected fan is female, what is the probability that she will support the
Stormers?
14. A test pilot will have to use his ejector seat with probability 0.04. The probability that
the ejector seat fails is 0.06 and the probability that his parachute opens is 0.97.
Assuming all of these events are independent, calculate the probability that the pilot
survives the flight.
15. Suppose 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴) = 0.7, 𝑃𝑃(𝐵𝐵) = 0.2 and 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 ∪ 𝐵𝐵) = 0.76 . Are 𝐴𝐴 and 𝐵𝐵 independent
events?
16. A class of 50 students consists of 30 boys and 20 girls. The class average for a recent
test was 68%. If the boys’ average mark was 65%, what was the average mark of the
girls in the class?
The Excel file “Assignment 1 Data.xlsx” contains 30 samples of 40 data points each, drawn from a
common population of data. Calculate a sample mean for each of the samples and the mean for
ALL of the data (1200 data points).
Using the bins 10,20,30,…,90,100 , create a frequency distribution of
(A) all of the 1200 data points and
(B) the sample means
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Use the frequency distributions to plot the histograms in both cases A and B. Label these graphs
appropriately.
Use the above to answer questions 17 – 20.
17. What is the mean of the 9th sample?
18. What is the standard deviation of the 1st sample?
19. How many of the values are larger than 90?
20. How many of the sample means are larger than 70?
