Solutions to Quiz # 2 (STA 4032)

1. The phone lines to an airline reservation system are occupied 40% of the time. Assume that the events that the lines are occupied on successive calls are independent.
Assume that 10 calls are placed to the airline.
(a) What is the probability that for exactly three calls the lines are occupied?
(b) What is the probability that for at least one call the lines are occupied?
(c) What is the expected number of calls in which the lines are all occupied?
Solution. Let X denote the number of times the line is occupied. Then, X has a
binomial distribution
n = 10 and p = 0.4.

with
10
3
(a) P (X = 3) = 3 (0.4) (0.6)7 = 0.215.

(b) P (X 1) = 1 P (X = 0) = 1 10
(0.4)0 (0.6)10 = 0.994.
0
(c) E(X) = np = 10(0.4) = 4.
2. The number of flaws in bolts of cloth in textile manufacturing is assumed to be
Poisson distributed with a mean of 0.2 flaw per square meter.
(a) What is the probability that there are three flaws in 1 square meter of cloth?
(b) What is the probability that there is one flaw in 10 square meters of cloth?
(c) What is the probability that there are at least two flaws in 10 square meters of
cloth?
Solution. (a) Let X be the number of flaws in 1 square meter of cloth. Then X has
a Poisson distribution with = 0.2. So, we have
P (X = 3) =

e0.2 (0.2)3
= 0.00109.
3!

(b) Let Y be the number of flaws in 10 square meters of cloth. Now the new parameter
= 10 (0.2) = 2. The desired probability is
e2 21
P (Y = 1) =
= 0.2707.
1!
(c) Based on part (b), we have
P (Y 2) = 1 P (Y 1) = 1 [P (Y = 0) + P (Y = 1)] = 1 [e2 + 2e2 ] = 0.594.