Problems 1

QAM II: Problem Set 1
Kaustav Banerjee
Decision Sciences Area, IIM Lucknow
1. Visitors to a popular Internet site rated the newest gaming console on a scale of 1 to 5
stars. The following probability distribution is obtained based on over 1400 individual ratings.
Rating 1 2 3 4 5
Probability 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.12 0.80
For a future random sample of 40 ratings, what are the mean and standard deviation of average
ratings? Find the probability that the average rating will lie between 4.6 to 4.8 stars.
2. Suppose packages of cream cheese coming from an automated processor have weights that
are normally distributed. For one day’s production run, the mean is 8.2 ounces and the
standard deviation is 0.1 ounce.
(a) If the packages of cream cheese are labelled 8 ounces, what proportion of the packages
weigh less than the labelled amount?
(b) If only 5% of the packages exceed a specified weight w, what is the value of w?
(c) Suppose two packages are selected at random from the day’s production. What is the
probability that the average weight of the two packages is less than 8.3 ounces?
(d) Suppose 5 packages are selected at random from the day’s production. What is the
probability that at most one package weighs at least 8.3 ounces?
3. The number of complaints per day, X, made to a cable TV is distributed as follows.
X 0 1 2 3
P (X = x) 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.2
(a) Find the expected number of complaints per day.

(b) Find the standard deviation of the number of complaints.
(c) What is the probability distribution of total number of complaints received in two days?
Assume the numbers of complaints on different days are independent.
(d) What is the approximate probability that the distributor will receive more than 125
complaints in 90 days?
4. Your supplier claims that only 5% of the parts it supplies are defective. Suppose you believe
his claim.
(a) If you take a sample of 10 parts, what is the probability that it will contain at least 8%
defective parts?
(b) If you take a sample of 400 parts, what is the probability that it will contain at least 8%
defective parts?
(c) In which case as above, you would be concerned about his claim?
5. To estimate the mean age for a population of 4000 employees, a simple random sample of
40 employees is selected.
1
(a) Would you use the finite population correction factor in calculating the standard error
of the mean? Explain.
(b) If the population standard deviation is σ = 8.2 years, compute the standard error both
with and without the finite population correction (fpc) factor. What is the rationale for
ignoring the fpc whenever n/N < 0.05?
(c) What is the probability that the sample mean age of the employees will be within ±2
years of the population mean age?
6. A survey indicates that about 28% of private companies are owned by women. Answer the
following questions based on a sample of 240 private companies.
(a) Write the sampling distribution of p̄, the sample proportion of companies that are owned
by women.
(b) What is the probability the sample proportion will be within ±0.04 of the population
proportion?
(c) What is the probability the sample proportion will be within ±0.02 of the population
proportion?
7. A successful sales representative for a major publisher usually obtains a book adoption on
25% of her sales calls. Viewing her sales calls for one month as a sample of all possible sales
calls, assume that the data yields a standard error of the proportion of 0.0625. How large was
the sample used in this analysis? Compute the probability that she will obtain book adoptions
on 30% or more of her sales calls during a one-month period.
8. Sales personnel for a company submit weekly reports listing the customer contacts made
during the week. A sample of 65 weekly reports showed a sample mean of 19.5 customer
contacts per week. The sample standard deviation was 5.2. Provide 90% and 95% confidence
intervals for the population mean number of weekly customer contacts for the sales personnel.
9. Mileage tests are conducted for a particular model of automobile. If a 98% confidence
interval with a margin of error of 1 mile per gallon is desired, how many automobiles should
be used in the test? Assume that preliminary mileage tests indicate the standard deviation is
2.6 miles per gallon.
10. In developing patient appointment schedules, a medical center wants to estimate the mean
time that a staff member spends with each patient. How large a sample should be taken if
the desired margin of error is two minutes at a 95% level of confidence? How large a sample
should be taken for a 99% level of confidence? Use a planning value for the population stan-
dard deviation of eight minutes.
11. A well-known bank credit card firm wishes to estimate the proportion of credit card
holders who carry a non-zero balance at the end of the month and incur an interest charge.
Assume that the desired margin of error is 0.03 at 98% confidence.
(a) How large a sample should be selected if it is anticipated that roughly 70% of the firm’s
card holders carry a non-zero balance at the end of the month?
(b) What should be the sample size if no such planning value could be specified?

Problems 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Problems 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Problems 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

QAM II: Problem Set 1

3. The number of complaints per day, X, made to a cable TV is distributed as follows.

(a) Find the expected number of complaints per day.

You might also like