IV Sem Civil, M1, AIML

Engineering Mathematics-IV
Probability Distribution And Joint Probability

1. A coin is tossed twice. A random variable X represents the number of heads turning up. Find
the discrete probability distribution for X. Also find its mean and variance.
2. A random experiment of rolling a die twice is performed. Random variable X on this sample
space is defined to be the sum of the two numbers turning up. Find the discrete probability
distribution for the random variable X and compute the corresponding mean and standard
deviation.
3. Show that the following distribution represents a discrete probability distribution. Find the
mean and variance.
x 10 20 30 40
p(x) 1/8 3/8 3/8 1/8
4. Find the value of k such that the following distribution represents a finite probability
distribution. Hence find its mean and standard deviation. Also find 𝒑(𝒙 ≤ 𝟏), 𝒑(𝒙 > 1)and
𝒑(−𝟏 < 𝒙 ≤ 𝟐)
x -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
p(x) k 2k 3k 4k 3k 2k k
5. The p.d.f. of a variable X is given by the following table.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
p(x) K 3K 5K 7K 9K 11K 13K
For what value of K, this represents a valid probability distribution? Also find 𝑷(𝒙 ≥ 𝟓) and
𝑷(𝟑 < 𝒙 ≤ 𝟔)
6. The p.d.f. of a finite random variable X is given by the following table.
x -2 -1 0 1 2 3
p(x) 0.1 K 0.2 2K 0.3 K
Find the value of K, mean and variance.
7. A random variable X has the following probability function for various values of x
x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
p(x) 0 k 2k 2k 3k k2 2k2 7k2+k
(a) Find k (b) Evaluate 𝑷(𝒙 < 6), 𝑷(𝒙 ≥ 𝟔) and𝑷(𝟑 < 𝒙 ≤ 𝟔). Also find the probability
distribution and the distribution function of X.
8. A random variable X takes the values -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 such that 𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟎) = 𝑷(𝑿 < 0) and
𝑷(𝑿 = −𝟑) = 𝑷(𝑿 = −𝟐) = 𝑷(𝑿 = −𝟏) = 𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟏) = 𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟐) = 𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟑). Find the
probability distribution.
9. If the random variable X takes the values 1, 2, 3, 4 such that 𝟐𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟏) = 𝟑𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟐) =
𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟑) = 𝟓𝑷(𝑿 = 𝟒), find the probability distribution function of X.
10. From a sealed box containing a dozen apples it was found that 3 apples are perished. Obtain
the probability distribution of the number of perished apples when 2 apples are drawn at
random. Also find the mean and variance of this distribution.
11. A random variable X has 𝑷(𝒙) = 𝟐−𝒙 , 𝒙 = 𝟏, 𝟐, …. Prove that 𝑷(𝒙) is a probability function.
Also find P(x=even), P(x being divisible by 3) and P(x≥5)

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 𝟏 𝟐 𝒙
12. A random variable X has 𝑷(𝒙) = 𝟐 (𝟑) , 𝒙 = 𝟏, 𝟐, …. Prove that 𝑷(𝒙) is a probability function.
Also find P(x=odd).
13. The range of a random variable 𝑿 = {𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑 … } and probabilities of 𝑿 are 𝒌𝒙. find the value of
k also compute the mean and variance of the probability distribution.
14. Find a probability distribution with mean 2 and variance 4/3.
15. When a coin is tossed 4 times ,what is the probability of getting (i) exactly one head,(ii) atmost
3 heads (iii) at least 2 heads.
16. The probability that a pen manufactured by a factory be defective is 1/10. If 12 such pens are
manufactured, what is the probability that a) exactly 2 are defective
b) at least 2 are defective c) none of them are defective.
17. The probability that a person aged 60 years will live upto 70 years is 0.65. What is the
probability that out of 10 persons aged 60 atleast 7 of them live upto 70?
18. The number of telephone lines busy at an instant of time is a binomial variate with probability
0.1 that a line is busy. If 10 lines are chosen at random ,what is the probability that (i) no line
is busy (ii)all lines are busy (iii) atleast one line is busy
19. In a consignment of electric lamps 5% is defective. If a random sample of 8 lamps is inspected,
what is the probability that one or more lamps are defective?
20. In sampling a large number of parts manufactured by a company. The mean number of
defectives in sample of 20 is 2. Out of 1000 such samples how many would be expected to
contain atleast 3 defective parts.
21. If the mean and SD of the number of correctly answered questions in a test given to 4096
students are 2.5 and 1.875 . Find the estimate number of candidates answering correctly (i) 8
or more questions (ii) 2 or less questions (iii) 5 questions.
22. In 800 families with 5 children each, how many families would be expected to have (i)3 boys
(ii)5 girls (iii)either 2 or 3 boys (iv)at most 2 girls assuming prob. for boys and girls are equal.
23. An airline knows that 5% of the people making reservations on certain flight will not turn up.
Consequently their policy is to sell 52 tickets for a flight that can hold 50 people. What is the
probability that there will be a seat for every passenger who turns up?
24. In a quiz contest of answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ , what is the probability of guessing at least 6
answers correctly out of 10 questions asked? Also find the probability of the same if there are
4 options for the correct answer?
25. A lot contains 1% defective items. What should be the no. of items in a random sample so that
at least 1 defective is 0.75
26. The probability that a shooter hits a target is 1/3. How many times he should shoot so that the
probability of hitting the target at least once is more than 3/4.
nx p
27. Show that for a binomial distribution, P x  1  P( x ) .
x 1 q
28. The no. of accidents in a year to taxi drivers in a city follows Poisson distribution with mean 3.
Out of 1000 taxi drivers, find approximately the no. of drivers with a) no accident in a year
b) more than 3 accidents in a year.
29. 2% fuses manufactured by a firm are found to be defective. Find the probability that box
containing 200 fuses has a) no defective fuse b) 3 or more defective fuses.

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30. In a certain factory making laser blades there is a small probability of 1/500 for any blade to
be defective in each packet. The blades are supplied in packets of 10. Calculate the no. of
packets having a) no defective blade b) 1 defective blade c) 2 defective blade in a
consignment of 1000 packets.
31. If the probability of a bad reaction from a certain injection is 0.001 determine the chance that
out of 2000 individuals more than 2 will get bad reaction.
32. A communication channel receives pulses at the rate of 12 pulses per micro second. The
probability of transmission error is 0.001 for 1 micro second. Compute the probability of a)no
error b) at least one error c)two errors d) at most 2 errors
33. The probability that a news reader commits no mistake in reading a news paper is 1/e3. Find
the probability that on a particular news broadcast he commits
a) Only one mistake b) more than 3 mistakes c) at most 3 mistakes
34. A shop has 4 generators sets which hires every day. The demand for a generator on an
average is a Poisson variant with value 5/2. Obtain the probability that on a particular day
a) there was no demand b) a demand had refused.
35. The probability of Possion variate takes the values 3 & 4 are equal. Calculate the probabilities
of the variate taking the values 0 and 1.
36. Alpha particles are emitted by a radioactive source at an average of 5 emissions in 20 minutes.
What is the probability that there will be a) exactly 2 emissions b) at least 2 emissions
37. If P(x=2) = 9 P(x=4) +90 P(x=6). Find mean and variance if x follows Poisson’s distribution.
38. If x follows Poisson’s law such that P(x=2) = 2/3 P(x=1). Find P(x=0) & P(x=3)

39. Show that for a Poisson’s distribution, P  x  1 

m
P( x ) .
x 1

CONTINUOUS PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

e  x , x  0
1. Show that f ( x )   is a p.d.f. Determine the probability that the variate having this
0 , x  0
P.d.f will fall in the interval (1, 2).
2. Find the c.d.f for the following p.d.f
 x x / 2
 e ,0  x     e  x ,0  x  
(a) f1 ( x )   4 (b) f 2 ( x )  
 0,otherwise
0,otherwise
x
  c ,0  x  3
3. Find c if f1 ( x )   2 . Also find p( 1  x  2 ) , mean and variance
0,otherwise
k
4. Find k if f ( x )  ,  x   is a p.d.f. Also find p( 01  x  1 ) and p( x  0 )
1  x2
kx2 ,0  x  3
5. Find the constant k such that f ( x )   is a p.d.f. Calculate mean, variance
0,otherwise
and p( 1  x  2 )

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 kt( 1  t ),0  t  1
6. If f ( t )   is a p.d.f for time t years to complete a project. Find k, also
0,otherwise.
find the probability that the project will be completed in less than 4 months.
7. In a certain town the duration of a rain is exponentially distributed with mean 5 minutes.
What is the probability that the shower will last for (a) 10 minutes or more (b) less than 10
(c) between 10 and 12 minutes.
8. The length of telephone conversation in a booth has been an exponential distribution and
found an average to be 5 minutes. Find the probability that a random call made from this
booth ends (1) less than 5 minutes (2) between 5 and 10 minutes.

9. If x is an exponential variate with mean 5. Evaluate p( 0  x  1 ) , p(   x  10 ) ,

p [ ( x  0 ) or ( x  1 ) ]
10. The sale per day in a shop is exponentially distributed with average sale amounting to Rs.
10,000. And net profit is 8%. Find the probability that the net profit exceeds Rs.3,000 in two
consecutive days.
11. The sale per day in a shop is exponentially distributed with average sale amounting to Rs.
100. And net profit is 8%. Find the probability that the net profit exceeds Rs.30 in two
consecutive days.
12. The km run in 1000 kms without any sort of problem in respect of a certain vehicle is a
random
 1 40 1
x
 e ,x  0
variate having p.d.f f ( x )   40 .Find the probability that the vehicle is trouble
0, x  0

free (1) at least 25000 km (2) at most for 25000 km (3) between 16000 to 32000 kms.
p( x  45 )
13. If x is a normal variate with mean 30 and S.D.5. Find p( 26  x  40 ) and
p( x  20 ) p( x  20 )
14. If x is a normally distributed with mean 12 and S.D.5. Find and
15. In a test on electric bulbs, it was found that life time of a particular brand was distributed
normally with an average life of 2000 hrs and S.D of 60 hrs. If a firm purchase 2500 bulbs, Find
the number of bulbs that are likely to last for 1) more than 2100 hrs 2) less than 1950 hrs 3)
between 1900 to 2100 hrs.
16. The marks of 1000 students in an exam follow a normal distribution with mean 70 and
standard deviation 5. Find the number of students whose marks will be a) less than 65 b)
more than 75 c) between 65 and 75.
17. The weekly wages of workers in a company is normally distributed with mean Rs.700 and
S.D.Rs.50, find the probability that the weekly wage of a randomly selected worker is (a)
between 650 and 750 (b) more than 750.
18. The mean weight of 500 students in a school is 50kg and S.D. is 6kg. Assume that the weights
are normally distributed, find the expected number of students weighing (a)between 40 and
50 kgs (b) more than 60kgs given A (1.6667) =0.4525.
19. In a normal distribution 31% of the items are under 45 and 8% of the items are over 64. Find
the mean and S.D of the distribution.

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 20. In an exam 7% of students score less than 35% marks and 89% of the students score less than
60% marks. Find the mean and S.D.if the marks are normally distributed. It is given that if
z z2
1 
p( z ) 
2 e
0
2
dz , then p (1.2263) =0.39 and p (1.4757) =0.43.

21. A certain number of articles manufactured in a batch were classified into three categories
according to some particular characteristic, being (a) less than 50, (b) between 50 and 60 (c)
greater than 60. If this characteristic is known to be normally distributed, determine the mean
and S.D. for this batch if 60%, 35% and 5% were found in these categories.
22. For the following normal distribution, find c, the mean and S.D of the frequency
1 2
( x 6 x  4 )
distribution. F(x) = c e f ( x )  ce 24 .
Joint Probability Distribution

1. The Joint Probability Distribution of two random variables is as follows: Determine

Marginal distribution of X and Y .Also compute E(X), E(Y), E(XY), 𝝈𝒙, 𝝈𝒚, COV(X,Y) 𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀)

Y -4 2 7
X
1 1/8 1/4 1/8
5 1/4 1/8 1/8

2. The Joint Probability Distribution of two random variables is as follows: Determine

Marginal distribution of X and Y .Also compute E(X), E(Y), E(XY), 𝝈𝒙, 𝝈𝒚, COV(X,Y) 𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀)
Y -2 -1 4 5
X
1 0.1 0.2 0 0.3

5 0.2 0.1 0.1 0

Further verify that X and Y are dependent random variables. Also P(x + Y)>0.

3. X and Y are independent random variables .X takes the values 2,5,7 with probabilities
1/2,1/4,1/4 respectively. Y takes the values 3,4,5 with probabilities 1/3,1/3,1/3
respectively.
(a)Find the Joint Probability Distribution of X and Y.(b) Show that COV (x, Y) = 0 (c) Find the
Probability Distribution of Z = X+Y

4. Suppose X and Y are independent random variables with the following distribution. Find
the Joint Probability Distribution of X and Y .Also verify COV(X,Y) = 0

Xi 1 2 Yj -2 5 8
f(xi) 0.7 0.3 g(y j) 0.3 0.5 0.2

5. The Joint Probability Distribution of two random variables x and y is given by 𝒇( 𝒙, 𝒚 ) =

𝒌(𝟐𝒙 + 𝒚) where x and y are integers such that 𝟎 ≤ 𝒙 ≤ 𝟐; 𝟎 ≤ 𝒚 ≤ 𝟑.(a) Find k . (b) Find
marginal distribution of x and y.(c) Are x and y are independent? (d) Compute E(X), E(Y),
E(XY), 𝝈𝒙, 𝝈𝒚. (e) Find 𝑷( 𝒙 = 𝟏, 𝒚 = 𝟐), 𝒑(𝒙 = 𝟐, 𝒚 = 𝟏) , 𝒑(𝒙 ≥ 𝟏, 𝒚 ≤ 𝟐), 𝒑(𝒙 + 𝒚 > 2)

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6. The Joint Probability Distribution of two random variables X and Y is given by f( x, y ) = cxy
for x =1,2,; y=1,2,3. (a) Find c . (b) Find 𝑷( 𝒙 = 𝟐, 𝒚 = 𝟑), 𝒑(𝟏 ≤ 𝒙 ≤ 𝟐, 𝒚 ≤ 𝟐) , 𝒑(𝒙 ≥
𝟐), 𝒑(𝒚 < 2), 𝒑(𝒙 = 𝟏), 𝒑(𝒚 = 𝟑)
7. X is a random variable with the following distribution and Y is defined to be x 2. Find the
distribution of Y , Joint probability distribution of X and Y, E(X), E(Y), E(XY), COV(X,Y)
𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀)

xi -2 -1 1 2
f(xi) 1/4 1/4 1/4 1/4
8. A fair coin is tossed twice. The random variable is defined as X = 0 or 1 according to head or
tail on the first toss. Y = the number of heads. Determine the distributions of X and Y, joint
distribution of X and Y, E(X), E(Y), E(XY), 𝝈𝒙, 𝝈𝒚, COV(X,Y) 𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀), 𝑷( 𝒙 = 𝟏, 𝒚 = 𝟐),
𝒑(𝒙 ≥ 𝟏, 𝒚 ≤ 𝟐) , 𝒑(𝒙 ≤ 𝟐, 𝒚 ≤ 𝟐), 𝒑(𝒙 + 𝒚 ≥ 𝟐).
9. A fair coin is tossed thrice. The random variable is defined as X = 0 or 1 according to head or
tail on the first toss. Y = the number of heads. Determine the distributions of X and Y, joint
distribution of X and Y, E(X), E(Y), E(XY), 𝝈𝒙, 𝝈𝒚, COV(X,Y) 𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀).
10. A fair coin is tossed thrice. The random variable is defined as X = 0 or 1 according to tail or
head on the first toss. Y = the number of tails. Determine the distributions of X and Y, joint
distribution of X and Y, E(X+Y), E(XY)
11. X and Y are independent random variables .Prove that E(XY) = E(X) .E(Y) , COV (X,Y) = 0
𝝈(𝒙 + 𝒚)𝟐 = 𝝈𝒙𝟐 + 𝝈𝒚𝟐
12. The distribution of two stochastically independent random variables X and Y are given as
below. Find the joint distribution of X and Y

X 0 1 Yj 1 2 3
P(X) 0.2 0.8 g(y j) 0.1 0.4 0.5
13. The Joint Probability Distribution of two random variables is as follows: Determine
Marginal distribution of X and Y. Also verify that X and Y are stochastically independent

Y 2 3 4
X
1 0.06 0.15 0.09

2 0.14 0.35 0.21

14. Given the Joint Probability Distribution of random variables X and Y .Find the
corresponding marginal distribution . Also compute COV (X , Y) and 𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀). Are the
variables X and Y are independent

Y -3 2 4
X
1 0.1 0.2 0.2

2 0.3 0.1 0.1

15. Given the Joint Probability Distribution of random variables X and Y .Find the
corresponding marginal distribution . Also compute COV (X , Y) and 𝝆(𝑿, 𝒀).
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 Y 1 3 9
X
2 1/8 1/24 1/12

4 1/4 1/4 0

6 1/8 1/24 1/12

*************************************

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NORMAL PROBABILITY TABLE

𝑧
1 −𝑧 2⁄
∅(𝑧) = ∫ 𝑒 2 𝑑𝑧
√2𝜋
0