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BE300 Quantitative Methods

Normal Distribution - Exercises (for week 17) 1


An investigation regarding the self-study time per week taken by the 25 students has been conducted. The self-study time follows a normal distribution with a mean of 15 hours and a standard deviation of 3 hours per week. What is the probability that the self-study time of a student randomly selected is a. between 12-18 hours; b. less than 10 hours; c. more than 22 hours.

Refer to exercise 5.1, suppose that only a class consisting of those 25 students is under investigation and the results of math examination of all the 25 students have a normal distribution with a mean of 77 and a standard deviation of 10. If a student wants to score higher than 90% of all the students do, what should be his mark?

According to the American Association of University Professor, the mean 19911992 salary of full-time instructional faculty at institution of higher education was $45,360. Suppose the distribution of 1991-1992 salaries of these faculties is skewed to the right with a mean of $45,360 and a standard deviation of $5900. Find the probability that the mean salary of a sample of 80 such faculty will be a. within $1800 of the population mean; b. lower than the population mean by $1200 or more.

The time taken, in minutes, to complete three tasks, machining, assembly and packaging, have been recorded as follows:

Exercises

Week (17)

Mean Machining Assembly Packaging 25 15 15

Standard deviation 7.5 5.5 4.5

If a particular job required all three tasks, what is the probability that the job will take more than an hour?

It has been claimed that only 45% of customers find changes to an invoicing system an improvement. Assuming this is the case, determine the probability that a market research survey of 100 customers will show that 50% or more report an improvement.

Exercises

Week (17)

BE300 Quantitative Methods


Confidence Intervals - Exercises (for week 17)
1. Assume that the weekly self-study time taken by all new students at a university is normally distributed with a standard deviation of 5 hours. In the sample of 25 students, their average self-study time is 32 hours per week. a. What is the point estimate of the average self-study time of all new students at the university? b. Find the 95% confidence interval estimate of the average self-study time of all new students at the university. c. Alternatively, find the 99% confidence interval estimate of the average selfstudy time of all new students at the university. d. What is the difference of the two estimates when confidence level is raised? If we want to reduce the width of a confidence level, how many choices do you have? What is the best way? Give an example. 2. Prides Consultants Inc. advises small businesses on energy saving tips and procedures. A business manager wants to know the average money saved per month by all clients of the company who adopt its tips and procedures. The manger of the consulting firm took a sample of 35 clients and found that these clients saved an average of 85 per month by adopting the tips provided by Prides. The standard deviation of the savings for these 35 clients was 12. Make a 99% confidence interval for the population mean.

3. You are working for a supermarket. The manager asked you to estimate the mean money spent by all customers at this supermarket during a visit. To do this, you took a small sample of 10 customers. The following data give the money (in pound sterling) they spent at this supermarket during that visit. 74 89 121 63 146 47 91 28 84 76

By experience, you assume that the money spent by all customers at this supermarket has a normal distribution.

Exercises

Week (17)

a. Do you think that you can estimate the mean money spent by all customers at this supermarket during a visit based on such a small sample? Why? b. How do you find a 95% confidence interval for the population mean?

4. A researcher wanted to know the percentage of executives of companies who hold a degree beyond a bachelors. He took a random sample of 15 executives of companies and asked them whether or not they hold such a degree. The responses of these executives are given below.

Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes

Make a 90% confidence interval for the percentage of all executives of companies who hold a degree beyond a bachelors. 5. A department store manager in Colchester wants to estimate at a 90% confidence level the mean amount spent by all customers at this store. From an earlier study, the manager knows that the standard deviation of amounts spent by customers at this store is 27. What sample size should he choose so that the estimate is within 3 of the population mean?

Exercises

Week (17)

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