MTCS3063/MT1613 - Probability and Statistics
Exercise 5 - Probability II
Q 1. It is known that 30% of a certain company’s washing machines require service
while under warranty, whereas only 10% of its dryers need such service. Assume
that the two machines will function independently.
If someone purchases both a washer and a dryer made by this company, what is
the probability that both machines will need warranty service? Neither of the
machines needs service. (Ans. 0.03, 0.63)
Q 2. Two pumps connected in parallel fail independently of one another on any given
day. The probability that only the older pump will fail is 0.10, and the probabil-
ity that only the newer pump will fail is 0.05.
What is the probability that the pumping system will fail on any given day
(which happens if both pumps fail)? (Ans. 0.0059)
Q 3. A boiler has five identical relief valves. The probability that any particular valve
will open on demand is 0.95. Assuming independent operation of the valves,
calculate P (at least one valve opens) and P (at least one valve fails to open).
(Ans. 0.99999, 0.2262)
Q 4. The proportions of blood phenotypes in the U.S. population are as follows:
A B AB O
0.40 0.11 0.04 0.45
Assuming that the phenotypes of two randomly selected individuals are inde-
pendent of one another, what is the probability that both phenotypes are O?
What is the probability that the phenotypes of two randomly selected individu-
als match?
Q 5. An oil exploration company currently has two active projects, one in Asia and
the other in Europe. Let A be the event that the Asian project is successful and
B be the event that the European project is successful. Suppose that A and B are
independent events with P (A) = 0.4 and P (B) = 0.7
i) If the Asian project is not successful, what is the probability that the Euro-
pean project is also not successful? Explain your reasoning.
ii) What is the probability that at least one of the two projects will be success-
ful?
iii) Given that at least one of the two projects is successful, what is the proba-
bility that only the Asian project is successful?
1
Q 6. Consider independently rolling two fair dice, one red and the other green. Let A
be the event that the red die shows 3 dots, B be the event that the green die shows
4 dots, and C be the event that the total number of dots showing on the two dice
is 7. Are these events pairwise independent (i.e., are A and B independent events,
are A and C independent, and are B and C independent)? Are the three events
mutually independent?
Q 7. For the 110th Congress, 18.7% of the members are senators and 49% of the sen-
ators are Democrats. What is the probability that a randomly selected member
of the 110th Congress is a Democratic senator? Ans. 0.092
Q 8. In Statistics class, there are 17 male and 23 female students. Two students are
selected at random from the class. The first student selected is not returned to
the class for possible reselection; that is, the sampling is without replacement.
Find the probability that the first student selected is female and the second is
male. Ans. 0.251
Use tree diagram to find the probabilities of other 3 possible outcomes (events).
That is in the 2 selected students, i) both are females, ii) 1st is a male and 2nd is
a female, and iii) both are males. (Ans. 0.324, 0.251, 0.174)
Q 9. Consider the experiment of randomly selecting one card from a deck of 52 play-
ing cards. Let
F ={ event a face card is selected}, K ={ event a king is selected}, and
H ={ event a heart is selected}.
i) Determine whether event K is independent of event F.
ii) Determine whether event K is independent of event H.
(Ans. No, Yes)
Q 10. When two balanced (red and black) dice are rolled, 36 equally likely outcomes
are possible. Let
A ={event the red die comes up even}, B ={event the black die comes up odd},
C ={event the sum of the dice is 10}, D ={event the sum of the dice is even}.
i) Compute P (A), P (B), P (C), and P (D).
ii) Are events A and C independent? Why or why not?
iii) Use P (C|A) to see if events A and C independent? Why or why not?
iv) Are events A and D independent? Why or why not?
