WEEK 4.
1 Tutorial Solutions
1. Decide whether the statement makes sense (or is clearly true) or does not make
sense (or is clearly false). Explain clearly.
(a) Scores on a statistics test are normally distributed with a mean of 75 and a standard
deviation of 75. False
(b) Birth weights (in grams) in Uzbekistan are normally distributed with a mean of 3.42 kg
and a standard deviation of 350 g. True
(c) Scores on a standard test of depth perception are normally distributed with two different
modes. False
(d) SAT scores are normally distributed with a mean of 1518 and a standard deviation of 325.
False
2. The scores on a verbal reasoning test are normally distributed with a population
mean of μ = 100 and a population standard deviation of σ = 10.
What is the probability that a randomly chosen person scores at least 105?
P(x 105) = P(z > 0.5) = P(z < -0.5) = 0.3085
3. It is known that amounts of money spent on clothing in a year by students on a particular
campus follow a normal distribution with a mean of $380 and a standard deviation of $50.
(a) What is the probability that a randomly chosen student will spend less than $400 on
clothing in a year?
P(x < 400) = P(z < 0.4) = 0.66
(b) What is the probability that a randomly chosen student will spend more than $360 on
clothing in a year?
P(x > 360) = P(z > -0.4) = P(z < 0.4) = 0.66
(c) Compute a range of yearly clothing expenditures— measured in dollars—that includes
80% of all students on this campus? Explain why any number of such ranges could be
found, and find the shortest one.
The shortest one is the middle 80%:
(380 – 1.28*50, 380+1.28*50)
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80% range: ($316, $444)
4. The number of newspapers sold daily at a kiosk is normally distributed with a mean of
350 and a standard deviation of 30.
(a) Find the probability that fewer than 300 newspapers are sold on a particular day.
P(x < 300) = P(z < -1.67) = 0.05
(b) Find the probability that the number of newspapers sold is between 300 and 360 on a
particular day.
P(300 < x < 360) = P(z < 0.33) – P(z < -1.67) = 0.63 – 0.05 = 0.58
(c) How many newspapers should the newsagent stock each day such that the probability of
running out on any particular day is 10%?
x−350
1.28 =
30
x = 388
5. Find the shaded area.
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6. Assume that the hourly cost to operate a commercial airplane follows the normal
distribution with a mean of $2,500 per hour and a standard deviation of $300. What is the
operating cost for the lowest 15% of the airplanes?
7. A company services copiers. A review of its records shows that the time taken for a
service call can be represented by a normal random variable with a mean of 75 minutes and a
standard deviation of 20 minutes.
(a) What proportion of service calls takes less than 1 hour?
P(x < 60) = P(z < -0.75) = 0.23
(b) What proportion of service calls takes more than 90 minutes?
P(x > 90) = P(z > 0.75) = 0.23
(c) Sketch a graph to show why the answers to parts (a) and (b) are the same.
(d) The probability is 0.1 that a service call takes more than how many minutes?
x = 75 + 1.28*20 = 100.6 101 minutes
8. Vending machines can be adjusted to reject coins above and below certain weights. The
weights of legal U.S. quarters have a normal distribution with a mean of 5.67 grams and a
standard deviation of 0.0700 gram. If a vending machine is adjusted to reject quarters that weigh
more than 5.80 grams and less than 5.50 grams, what percentage of legal quarters will be
rejected by the machine?
P(5.50 < x < 5.80) = P(z < 1.86) – P(z < -2.43) = 0.96
Approximately, 4% will be rejected.
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9. Find the value of x.
z value for 90th percentile is approximately 1.28.
x−50
1.28 = => x = 69.2
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