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2 Marks Questions
1. The probability distribution of a random variable X is given below:
X -1 0 1
P(X) 6b 4b 2b
Then find the value of b.
2. A discrete random variable X has the following probability mass functions:
Values of X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
P(X) 0 2k 3k k 2k k2 7k2 2k2 + k
Then find the value of k.
3. For a discrete random variable X , ran ( X ) = {0, 1, 2, 3} and the cumulative
probability F (x) is shown below:
X 0 1 2 3
F(x) 0.5 0.6 0.8 1
Then obtain the mean value of X .
4. A discrete random variable X has the following probability mass functions (pmf):
x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
P( X = x) 0 k 2k 2k 3k k2 2k2 7k2+k
Then estimate the probability: P(0< X < 5)
5. A random variable X has the following probability distribution:
X 4 5 6 8
P(X ) 0.1 0.3 0.4 0.2
Find the mean, variance and standard deviation of X .
6. Four unbiased dice are thrown. Find the mathematical expectation of the sum of
points on the dice.
7. If for a random variable X , var( X ) = 1 then obtain the value of var( 2 X + 3).
8. Define - mean and variance of a random variable X .
9. Prove that var( aX + b) = a 2 var( X ), a( 0) & b are constants.

kx(1 − x),0  x  1
10. Obtain the value of k for which f ( x) =  is a probability density
0, otherwise
function.
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11. The probability density function (pdf) of a continuous random variable X is given by
 kx
 , 0 x5
f ( x) =  25 .
0, elsewhere

Obtain the value of P( X  1).

12. A continuous random variable X has the pdf f ( x) = 1 / 4, − 2  x  2 then find the
probability P(2 X + 3  5).
13. Under what condition/s Binomial Distribution converges to Poisson distribution.
14. State Binomial Distribution stating its limit of application.

8
15. The mean and standard deviation of a Binomial distribution are 4 and
3
respectively. Obtain the values of n and p (where n and p are parameters of the
distribution).
16. For a binomial distribution (6, p), P(X = 2) = 9P(X = 4), then estimate the value of p.
17. If a random variable X follows Poisson distribution such that 2P( X = 0) = P( X = 1),
then obtain the mean and variance of the distribution.
18. If X is a Poisson variate such that P(X = 2) = 9P( X = 4) + 90P( X = 6), then find the
mean and variance of X .
19. If X is exponentially distributed with parameter  then show that the probability of
the value of X exceeding its mean value is less than 1 / 2.
20. Write the name and pdf of the probability distribution where mean = median = mode
21. Obtain the skewness of the Normal Distribution.
22. If X is normally distributed with zero mean and unit variance then obtain the
expectation of X 2 .
23. If X is normally distributed with mean 30 and variance 25 then obtain the value of the
standard normal variate Z.
24. Write the p.m.f. of the probability distribution whose parameter, mean and variance
are equal.
25. If X ~ N (12,3) convert (10  X  14) in terms of the corresponding standard normal
variate Z .
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26. Let a random variable X follows Binomial distribution (n, p) and if n →  and p

possesses some moderate value, then X approaches to N (a,b). Write the expressions
for a & b.
27. If on an average 8 ships out of 10 arrive safely at a port, find the mean and standard
deviation of the number of ships arriving safely out of a total of 1600 ships.
28. Is the statement right? ‘A binomial variate has mean 3 and variance 4’.
n
29. Show that the variance of Binomial distribution cannot exceed for n independent
4
trials.
30. If F (x) be the distribution Function of a continuous random variable X then show
that (i) F (−) = 0 and (ii) F () = 1.
31. For a random variable X, E(x) = 10 and var(x) = 25. If y = mx – n (m, n > 0) have
expectation 0 and variance 1, then find (m, n).
32. If a random variable X takes the values 1, 2, 3 and 4 such that
P( X = 1) = P( X = 2) = 2P( X = 3) = P( X = 4), find the probability distribution of X .

5 Marks Questions
1
1. If the random variable X has the p.d.f. f ( x) = ,−2  x  2. Find i) P( X  1) ii)
4
 1
P| X − 1 | .
 2
2. If X & Y are two independent random variables then prove that

var( aX + bY ) = a 2 var( X ) + b 2 var(Y ), a, b are non-zero constants.

3. Find the variance and standard deviation for the following discrete distribution:
X =x 8 12 16 20 24
P( X = x) 1/8 1/6 3/8 1/4 1/12
4. An unbiased coin is tossed repeatedly until a Head appears. If X denotes the number
of Tails preceding the first Head, find the probability distribution of X .
5. Two bad eggs are accidentally mixed with ten good eggs. It is not possible to just look
at an egg and tell whether or not it is bad. Determine the probability distribution of the
number of bad eggs, if three eggs are drawn at random without replacement from this
lot.
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6. If f ( x) = kx, x = 1,2,− − −, n be the p. m. f. of a random variable X , then find the

mean and variance of X .
7. A machine produces 0,1 or 2 defective pieces in a day with associated probabilities
1/6, 2/3 and 1/6. Find the mean value and variance of the number of defective items
produced by the machine in a day.
8. The overall percentage of failures in a certain examination is 40. What is the
probability that out of a group of 6 candidates at least 4 passed the examination?
9. 2% of the items made by a machine are defective. Find the probability that 3 or more
items are defective in a sample of 100 items. [ Given: e −2 = 0.135]
1
10. If the chance of being killed by flood during a year is , use Poisson distribution to
3000
calculate probability that out of 3000 persons living in a village, at least one will die in
flood in a year.
11. The incidence of occupational disease in an industry is such that workers have a 10%
chance of suffering from it. What is the chance that out of 6 workers, at least 3 will
suffer from the disease?
12. The probability of hitting a target by a bullet is 1/2. Two direct hits are required to
destroy the target. If four bullets are thrown independently, find the probability of
destroying the target.
13. The probability that an entering college student will graduate is 0.4. Determine the
probability that out of 5 students (a) none (b) one (c) at least one, will graduate.
14. If 3% of the bolts manufactured by a company are defective, find the probability that
in a sample of 200 bolts (a) 5 will be defective (b) none is defective
[Given e −6 = 0.00248]
15. A radioactive source emits on the average 2.5 particles per second. Calculate the
probability that 2 or more particles will be emitted in an interval of 4 seconds? [Given
e −10 = 0.000045]
16. If X is a Poisson variate such that P(X = 2) = 9P( X = 4) + 90P( X = 6), then find the
mean and variance of X .
17. It is known that the daily consumption of milk in excess of 25,000 litres in a town is
1
approximately exponentially distributed with parameter 3000. The town has a daily

stock of 40,000 litres. Determine the probability that of 2 days selected at random the
stock is insufficient for both days.
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18. If X is normally distributed with mean 30 and variance 25 then find P( X − 30  5).

 1 1 −t 2 / 2 


Given 
2 0
e dt = 0.3413

19. If X is normally distributed with mean 3 and standard deviation 2, find c such that
 0.43

P( X  c) = 2P( X  c). Given   (t )dt = 0.6666
 − 
20. A system contains 1000 components. Each component fails independently of the others
and the probability of its failure in one month is 1/1000. What is the probability that the
system will function (i.e. no component fails) at the end of one month?
21. If 5% of the electrical bulbs manufactured by a company are defective, use Poisson
distribution to find the probability that in a sample of 100 bulbs (i) none is defective,
(ii) 5 bulbs will be defective. (Given e^(-5) = 0.007).
22. Find the probability that at most 5 defective bulbs will be found in a box of 200 bulbs,
if it is known that 2 per cent of such bulbs are expected to be defective. You may take
the distribution to be Poisson. (Given e^(-4) = 0.0183).
23. The manufacturer of a certain electronic component knows that 3% of his product is
defective. He sells the components in boxes of 100 and guarantees that not more than 3
in any box will be defective. What is the probability that a box will fail to meet the
guarantee? (Given e^(-3) = 0.201).
24. Comment on the accuracy of the following results:
(i) For a binomial distribution, mean = 4 and variance = 3.
(ii) For a Poisson distribution, mean = 10 and s.d. = 5.
(iii) For a normal distribution, mean = 50, median = 52.
25. Comment on the following statements:
(a) For a binomial distribution, mean = 16, s.d. = 4.
(b) For a normal distribution, mean = 50, mode = 90.
(c) Any measure of skewness for Normal distribution is ≠ 5.
(d) For Normal distribution, the value of the fourth central moment per unit of
square of second central moment is +3.
26. State whether each of the following is true or false:
(a) The variance of a binomial distribution can never exceed the mean.
(b) The expected value of Poisson variate must be a positive integer.
(c) The mean of normal distribution cannot be negative.
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(d) The Poisson distribution may have one or two modes.

10 Marks Questions
1. Find the mean and variance of Binomial Distribution.
2. Find the mean and variance of Poisson Distribution.
3. Find the mean and variance of Exponential Distribution.
4. Find the mean and variance of Normal Distribution.
5. The p.d.f. of a continuous random variable is f ( x) = y0e−|x| ,−  x  . Find i) the

value of y0 ii) mean and variance of the distribution.

6. A continuous distribution is given by

 1 2

 e−(log x ) / 2 , x  0
f ( x) =  x 2 .
0, x0

Find the mean and standard deviation of the distribution.
7. Show that a function f ( x) =| x | in [- 1, 1] and zero elsewhere is a possible p.d.f. and
find the corresponding distribution function.
8. Two persons throw an ordinary die alternately and the first who throws 6 is to get Rs.
121. Find their expectations.
 x / 2, 0  x  1

9. A continuous variate X has the p.d.f. f ( x) = 1 / 2,1  x  2 . Find i) mean of x
(3 − x) / 2, 2  x  3

ii) variance of x .
10. A man buys a ticket in a lottery that sells 100 tickets and that gives 5 prizes of Rs.
200, 8 prizes of Rs. 100 and 20 prizes of Rs. 10. How much should the man be willing
to pay for a ticket in this lottery? Assume that all tickets are equally likely to win the
prize.
11. The p.d.f. of a continuous random variable X is given by
kx + 1 / 2, −1  x  1
f ( x) =  where k is a constant. Find k for which the variance of
0, elsewhere
X is maximum.
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12. A fair coin is tossed 3 times independently. Let the random variable X represents the
number of heads obtained. Find the probability distribution of X and its distribution
function.
13. It is known that the time in hours required to repair a machine is exponentially
distributed with parameter  = 1 / 2. Find (i) the probability that the required time
exceeds 2 hours (ii) the conditional probability that a repair takes at least 10 hours
given that its duration exceeds 9 hours.
14. The weight of students in a college is normally distributed with mean 40 kg and
standard deviation 5 kg. Find the percentage of students that have weight (i) greater
than 40 kg (ii) between 38 kg and 52 kg.
 1 0.4
1 2.4

 e dt = 0.6554, e
2
−t / 2 −t 2 / 2
Given dt = 0.9918
 2 − 2 − 
15. Of a large group of men 5% are under 60 inches in height and 40% are between 60
and 65 inches. Assuming a normal distribution, find the mean height and standard
deviation. [Given : P(0  Z  1.645) = 0.45, P(0  Z  0.13) = 0.05]
16. The mean of a normal distribution is 50 and 5% of the values are greater than 60.
Find the s.d. of the distribution.[Given: the area under standard normal curve between
z = 0 and z = 1.64 is 0.45]
17. The mean inside diameter of a sample of 200 washers produced by a machine is 0.502
cm and the standard deviation is 0.005 cm. The purpose for which washers are
intended allows a maximum tolerance in the diameter of 0.496 to 0.508 cm.
Determine the percentage of defective washers produced by the machine assuming the
diameters are normally distributed. [Given, area under the standard normal curve from
z = 0 to z = 1.2 is 0.3849]
18. Find the mean and standard deviation of a normal distribution when 8% of the items
are over 64 and 31% are under 45.[Given, P(0< z< 0.496) = 0.19 and P(0 < z < 1.405)
= 0.42]
19. The distribution function of a variate X is defined as follows:
 A, −   x  −1
B, −1  x  0

F(X ) =  where A, B, C, D are constants. Determine the values of
 C , 0  x  2
D, 2 x
1 2
A, B, C , D given that P( X = 0) = & P( X  1) =
6 3
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20. The length of life of a Tyre follows the continuous distribution

k / x3 , 1000  x  1500
f ( x) =  . Find the value of k and the probability that a
0, elsewhere
randomly selected Tyre would function for at least 1200 hours.
21. In a certain factory, blades are manufactured in packets of 10. There is a 0.2%
probability for any blade to be defective. Using Poisson distributions calculate
approximately the number of packets containing two defective blades in a
consignment of 20,000 packets. (Given that e^(-0.02) = 0.9802).
22. A car hire firm has 2 cars which hire out by day. The number of demands for a car on
each day follows Poisson distribution with mean 1.5. Calculate the proportion of days
on which (i) neither car is used, (ii) some demand is refused. (Given e^(-1.5) =
0.2231).
23. What is the probability of getting 3 white balls in a draw of 5 balls from a box
containing 5 white and 4 black balls?
24. 10 cards are drawn at random one by one without replacement from a full pack of 52
playing cards. Find the mean and variance of the number of red cards obtained.
25. The height distribution of a group of 2989 individuals is known to be normal
distribution with mean 65" and standard deviation 2.1". Find the number of
individuals whose heights lie between 60.8" and 67.1". Find also the number of
individuals whose height are above 67.1".
26. What is ‘Standard Normal distribution’? State some of its important properties. As a
result of test on electric light bulbs, it was found that the life of a particular make was
distributed normally with an average life of 1000 burning hours and standard
deviation of 200 hours. Out of 10,000 bulbs produced by the company how many
bulbs are expected to fail (i) in the first 800 burning hours, (ii) between 800 and 1,200
burning hours. (Given Φ(1) = 0.84134).
27. Assume the mean height of soldiers to be 68.22 inches with a variance of 10.8 sq.
inches. How many soldiers in a regiment of 1000 would you expect to be over 6 ft.?
(Given that the area under the standard normal curve between x = 0 and u = 0.35 is
0.1368 and between x = 0 and u = 1.15 is 0.3749).
28. The mean I.Q. of a group of children is 90 with a standard deviation of 20. Assuming
that I.Q. is normally distributed, find the percentage of children with I.Q. over 100.
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(Given Φ(0.5) = 0.6915, where Φ(x) is the cumulative distribution function of

standard normal distribution.)
29. 5000 candidates appeared at an examination, in which the minimum for a pass is 40
and the minimum for a distinction is 50. If it is known that the average mark obtained
by the candidates is 43 and the S.D. is 7, find how many of the candidates expect to
get simply ‘pass’ and the number obtaining distinction. Assume normal distribution.
(Given Φ(0.43) = 0.6664, Φ(1) = 0.8413).
30. In a sample of 120 workers in a factory, the mean and s.d. of wages were Rs. 11.35
and Rs. 3.03 respectively. Find the percentage of workers getting wages between Rs 9
and Rs 17 in the whole factor, assuming that the wages are normally distributed.
(Given, Area under standard normal curve from z = 0 to z = 0.78 is 0.2823 and to z =
1.86 is 0.4686).
31. The mean of the inner diameters (in inch) of a sample of 200 tubes produced by a
machine is 0.502 and the standard deviation is 0.005. The purchaser of the machine
uses 0.502 as intended values as maximum tolerance in the diameter of 0.496 to
0.508. (Else otherwise the tubes are considered defective). What percentage of the
tubes produced by the machine is defective, if the diameters are normally distributed?
(Area under standard normal curve from z = 0 to z = 2.4 is 0.4918 and z = 2.5 is
0.4949).
32. A consumer is able to supply electric power if the mean supply can be treated as a
constant variable having a normal distribution with mean 300 m.w. and s.d. 5 m.w.
Since the supply is not a constant, the local authorities have to build a reservoir to
hold the excess power supplied. It is shown that to avoid overflow of a maximum of
250 m.w., is required whenever the load exceeds 310 m.w. Determine the load at
which there is 1% probability of exceeding it.
33. X follows a normal distribution whose mean is 12 and standard deviation is 4. Find
P(X ≥ 20). Given ∫[from α to ∞] (1/√2π) e^(-t²/2) dt = 0.9772499.
34. In a normal distribution, 8% of the items are under 50 and 10% are over 60. Find the
mean and s.d. Given ∫[from α to ∞] (1/√2π) e^(-x²/2) dx = 0.08 or 0.10, according as x
= 1.4 or 1.28.
35. A die is tossed 1200 times. Find the probability that the number of ‘sixes’ lies
between 190 and 210. (Given that the area under the standard normal curve between z
= 0 and z = 0.78 is 0.2823 and between z = 0 and z = 0.81 is 0.2910).
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36. Show that the probability that the number of heads in 400 tosses of a fair coin lies
between 180 and 220 is approximately 2Φ(2) – 1, where Φ(x) denotes the standard
normal distribution functions.
37. A normal distribution has mean 10.4 and s.d. 1.2. Find the limits within which an
observation chosen at random almost certainly lies.
38. Player A tosses 5 coins and B tosses 8 coins. If the coins are unbiased, what is the
probability of obtaining a total of 6 heads by the two players?
39. The number of deaths per day in a city due to road accidents and due to other causes
independently follows Poisson distributions with parameters 2 and 6 respectively.
Find the probability that the total number of deaths on a particular day is 2 or fewer.
(Given e^-8 = 0.018).