Mathematics T Semester 3 [Sampling and Estimation]

1. It is known that the standard deviation of the time required to solve a certain problem is 5
minutes. What is the probability that the mean time of 100 persons chosen at random to tackle
the problem will differ by more than 1 minute from the mean time taken by all persons tackling
the problem?
2. The mean and standard deviation of the lifespan of 64 insects chosen at random in a farm are
8.36 hours and 1.32 hours respectively.
(a) Estimate the mean and standard deviation of the lifespan of all the insects in the farm.
(b) Estimate the standard error of the mean.
3. The mass of fruit in a randomly chosen tin has a normal distribution with mean 278 g and
standard deviation 9.2 g. The total mass of the fruit and the juice has an independent normal
distribution with mean 432 g and standard deviation 7.8 g. Find the probability that
(a) the mass of juice in a randomly chosen tin is greater than 170 g.
(b) the mean mass of fruits of 4 randomly chosen tins is less than 275 g.
4. On the average, a button making machine is known to produce 6 % defective buttons. A
random sample of 100 buttons is inspected and if eight or more buttons are found to be
defective, the operation of the machine will be stopped.
(a) State the sampling distribution for the sample proportion of defective buttons.
(b) Find the probability that the operation of the machine will be stopped.
5. It is known that under standard growing condition, the heights of certain type of plant is
normally distributed with mean 23.6 cm and variance 1.38 cm.
(a) Calculate the height which is exceeded by 90 % of the plants.
(b) Determine a 95 % confidence interval for the mean height of 250 plants.
6. The masses of a type of microchips produced by a factory are normally distributed with mean
and standard deviation 1.4 g.
(a) If = 8 g, find the probability that the mean mass of a random sample of 7 microchips is
less than 7 g.
(b) If the mean mass of a random sample of 7 microchips is 7.7 g, obtain a 95% confidence
interval for . State, with a reason, whether the statement made by the management of this
factory that =8.4 g is acceptable or not.
(c) Determine the smallest sample size required so that the value or error in estimation of
acquired is less than 0.4 at the 95 % confidence level.
7. A researcher wishes to estimate the number of vehicles that pass by a location.
(a) According to a previous study, the standard deviation of the number of vehicles passing by
the location per day is 245. Calculate the number of days required so that he is 99 % confident
that the estimate is within 100 vehicles of the true mean.
(b) The standard deviation of the number of vehicles is actually 356. Based on the sample size
obtained in (a), determine the confidence level of the estimate to be within 100 vehicles of the
true mean.