PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR MIDTERM 2

ECON 321
Summer I, 2007

1. What probability value would be needed to complete the following probability

distribution?
x
-2
-1
0
1
2
P(x)
0.13
0.14
0.16
0.29
A) 0.14 B) 0.28 C) 0.43 D) 0.72
Ans: B
2. Give the mean of the following probability distribution?
P( x )
x
1
0.20
2
0.10
3
0.35
4
0.05
5
0.30
A) 1.20 B) 1.46 C) 3.15 D) 2.13
Ans: C
3. The number of cartoons watched by Mrs. Kelly's first grade class on Saturday morning
is shown below.

x
0
1
2
3
4
5

P( x )

0.15
0.20
0.30
0.10
0.20
0.05

What is the mean distribution of the data given above?

A) 1.37 B) 2.15 C) 1.89 D) 1.18
Ans: B
4. Give the variance of the following distribution?
P( x )
x
0
0.20
1
0.35
2
0.10
3
0.25
4
0.10
A) 1.83 B) 1.31 C) 1.25 D) 1.71
Ans: D

5. What is the standard deviation of the following probability distribution?

P( x )
x
0
0.20
2
0.05
4
0.35
6
0.25
8
0.15
A) 2.6 B) 4.7
Ans: A

C) 5.4

D) 3.9

6. A researcher calculated the values and probabilities for a random variable X as shown
below. Unfortunately, he erased the last value and needs to figure out what it was. If the
mean of X was 3.4, then what was the last value?
x
0
1
3
?
P(x)
.4
.1
.2
.3
A) 12 B) 11 C) 10 D) 9
Ans: D
7. If a student randomly guesses at 20 multiple-choice questions, find the probability that
the student gets exactly four correct. Each question has four possible choices.
A) 0.19 B) 0.17 C) 0.08 D) 0.23
Ans: A
8. A school is sending 10 children to a camp. If 20% of the children in the school are first
graders, and the 8 children are selected at random, what is the mean and variance of the
number of first graders chosen?
Ans: The mean is 2 and the variance is 1.6.
9. Give the type of distribution pattern that occurs when the majority of the data values fall
to the left of the mean?
A) symmetrical B) positively skewed C) negatively skewed D) left skewed
Ans: B
10. The total area under the normal distribution curve is approximately 0.99 but can never
be equal to 1.0.
Ans: False
11. For a normal curve with mean 8 and standard deviation 7, which of the following parts
of the normal curve will have an area of approximately 68%?
A) from 4.5 to 11.5 B) from 1 to 15 C) from 8 to 22 D) from 6 to 22
Ans: B
12. Find the probability P(z > 0.78) using the standard normal distribution.
A) 0.2200 B) 0.7823 C) 0.7177 D) 0.2177
Ans: D

13. Find the probability P(z > 0.64) using the standard normal distribution.
A) 0.2611 B) 0.7389 C) 0.7611 D) 0.3600
Ans: B
14. Find the probability P(0.77 < z < 0.16) using the standard normal distribution.
A) 0.0400 B) 0.7842 C) 0.3458 D) 0.2158
Ans: D
15. At a large department store, the average number of years of employment for a cashier is
5.7 with a standard deviation of 1.8 years. If an employee is picked at random, what is
the probability that the employee has worked at the store for over 10 years?
A) 49.16% B) 99.16% C) 0.84% D) 0.54%
Ans: C
16. Mrs. Smith's reading class can read a mean of 175 words per minute with a standard
deviation of 20 words per minute. The top 3% of the class is to receive a special award.
What is the minimum number of words per minute a student would have to read in order
to get the award?
Ans: 213
17. If X is a normal random variable with mean 5, and if the probability that X is more than
4.42 is .5910 (as shown below), then what is the standard deviation of X? (Note: the
diagram is not necessarily to scale.)

A) 2.50
Ans: A

B) 1.67

C) 1.25

D) 0.63

18. The __________ is the difference between the sample measure and the corresponding
population measure due to the fact that the sample is not a perfect representation of the
population.
A) sampling error B) variance C) normal distribution D) z score
Ans: A
19. The standard deviation of a distribution is 20. If a sample of 225 is selected, what is the
standard error of the mean?
Ans: 1.33
20. The mean weight of loads of rock is 43.0 tons with a standard deviation of 8.0 tons. If 9
loads are chosen at random for a weight check, find the probability that the mean weight
of those loads is less than 40.60 tons. Assume that the variable is normally distributed.
A) 0.1841 B) 0.3441 C) 0.2161 D) 0.4127
Ans: A

21. A biologist estimates that 60% of deer in the region carry a certain type of tick. For a
sample of 300 deer selected at random, what is the chance that 186 or fewer deer have
this tick?
A) 0.8135 B) 0.7794 C) 0.7344 D) 0.7290
Ans: B
22. Of the members of a Boy Scout troop, 15% have received their first aid badge. If 40 boy
scouts are selected at random, find the probability that four or more will have the first
aid badge?
A) 86.65% B) 85.35% C) 36.65% D) 35.35%
Ans: A
23.

The term z / 2

refers to the
n
A) unbiased estimator.
B) confidence interval.
Ans: C

C)
D)

maximum error of estimate.

interval estimate.

24. The confidence level of an interval estimate of a parameter is the probability that the
interval estimate will contain the parameter.
Ans: True
25. Which value of z /2 was used in the figure below?

Ans: 1.65
26. A sample of 25 different payroll departments found that the employees worked an
average of 310.3 days a year with a standard deviation of 23.8 days. What is the 90%
confidence interval for the average days worked, , of all payroll departments?
3010
. < < 319.6
302.4 < < 318.2
A)
C)
298
.
0
<

<
322
.
6
314.1 < < 316.8
B)
D)
Ans: C
27. The average number of miles that 90 truckers drove in a day was 540 with a standard
deviation of 40 miles. What is the 99% confidence interval of the true mean number of
miles driven by all truckers?
Ans: 529.1 < < 550.9

28. A study of 70 professors showed that the time they spent on the average in creating test
questions was 10.0 minutes per question. The standard deviation of the population is 3.
Which of the following is the 90% confidence interval for the average number of
minutes it takes to create a test question?
A) (9.08, 10.92) B) (9.59, 10.41) C) (9.41, 10.59) D) (5.07, 14.93)
Ans: C
29. Jennifer wants to find a 95% confidence interval for the time it takes her to get to work.
She kept records for 30 days and found her average time to commute to work was 20.5
minutes with a standard deviation of 3.9 minutes. Jennifer's maximum error of estimate
would be 1.4 minutes.
Ans: True
30. If a population has standard deviation 10, what is the minimum sample size to be 95%
confident that the error should be accurate to within 5?
A) 32 B) 4 C) 16 D) 8
Ans: C
31. The t-distribution has a variance that is greater than one.
Ans: True
32. The __________ are the number of values that are free to vary after a sample statistic
has been computed.
Ans: degrees of freedom
33. The t-distribution must be used when the sample size is greater than 30 and the variable
is normally or approximately normally distributed.
Ans: False
34. A food snack manufacturer samples 15 bags of pretzels off the assembly line and
weighed their contents. If the sample mean is 10.0 and the sample standard deviation is
0.15, find the 95% confidence interval of the true mean.
A) (9.96, 10.04) B) (9.68, 10.32) C) (9.80, 10.20) D) (9.92, 10.08)
Ans: D
35. A sample of 400 racing cars showed that 80 cars cost over $700,000. What is the 99%
confidence interval of the true proportion of cars costing over $700,000?
Ans: 0.148 < p < 0.252
36. A random sample of 70 voters found that 42% were going to vote for a certain
candidate. Find the 90% limit for the population proportion of voters who will vote for
that candidate.
A) 32.3% < p < 51.7%
C) 34.4% < p < 49.6%
B) 33.4% < p < 50.6%
D) 37.1% < p < 46.9%
Ans: A

37. What is the 95% confidence interval for the standard deviation of birth weights at
County General Hospital, if the standard deviation of the last 25 babies born there was
1.1 pounds?
.
D) 0.9 < < 1.5
A) 0.8 < < 2.1 B) 0.7 < < 2.3 C) 0.8 < < 19
Ans: D
38. The value for 2left for a 99% confidence interval when n = 24 is 9.262.
Ans: True