STAT6202 Exercises 4

1. (a) If Z is a random variable with the standard normal distribution, find the following probabilities:
i. P (Z < 0.84),
ii. P (Z > 1.62),
iii. P (Z < −1.23),
iv. P (Z > −0.44),
v. P (0.31 < Z < 1.75), and
vi. P (−0.74 < Z < 1.52).
(b) If X is a random variable that has a normal distribution with mean 50 and standard deviation 10
find
i. P (X < 60),
ii. P (X > 48.2), and
iii. P (42.3 < X < 58.0).
(c) Suppose that the upper and lower 10 percentiles of a normal distribution are 120 and 80, respec-
tively. Find the mean and standard deviation of this distribution.
(d) Assume that the height of customers of a bed store has a normal distribution with mean 1.69 meters
and variance 0.0169 meters2 . What should the length of mattresses be to accommodate 95% of the
customers? Assume that the length of the mattress needs to be at least the height of the customer to
accommodate the customer.

2. Assume that batteries of brand X have a mean lifespan of 20 hours and a standard deviation of 2 hours.

(a) What are the mean and variance of the lifespan of 1 battery of brand X which is going to be ran-
domly selected?
(b) What are the mean and variance of the mean lifespan of 4 batteries of brand X which are going to
be randomly selected?
(c) What can you say about the distribution of the the mean lifespan of 4 batteries of brand X which
are going to be randomly selected? Explain.
(d) What are the mean and variance of the mean lifespan of 100 batteries of brand X which are going
to be randomly selected?
(e) What can you say about the distribution of the mean lifespan of 100 batteries of brand X which are
going to be randomly selected? Explain.

3. Management of a kids’ clothes shop are interested in the average age of all their customers. As such they
have employed a research company which has come in, randomly selected 25 customers and recorded
their age. Let’s define the random variables X as the age of a randomly selected customer.

(a) i. Describe in words what the sample and population are in this context.
ii. Describe in words what µ and x̄ represent in this context.
iii. Describe in words what σ and s represent in this context.
(b) Management is not only interested in the age of their customers, but also in their height. Let’s define
the random variable Y as the height of a randomly selected customer.
 i. Describe in words what E(Y ) is in this context.
ii. Describe in words what E(Y |X = 10) and E(Y |X = 8) are in this context.
iii. Do you expect E(Y |X = 10) or E(Y |X = 8) to be bigger? Why?
iv. Instead of a sample of size 25, the research company takes a huge sample and records both the
age and height of randomly selected customers. What will happen to the sample mean age and
mean height? Why?

4. An IVF clinic has recorded the number of babies at birth of all couples who visited their clinic and were
successful (i.e. had at least one child). The following tables shows the proportions (or the point masses)
of the number of babies born:

Number of babies Proportion

1 0.70
2 0.29
3 0.01

(a) Define an appropriate random variable X.

(b) What is the population in this context?
(c) Calculate E(X) and σx2

5. Four college friends have their annual reunion. Each friend has recently bought a house and they are
comparing their salaries and mortgages. The following table contains the salary (in 1000’s) and mortgage
(in 1000’s) information for the four friends.

Friend Salary Mortgage

Alex 70 84
Ben 27 84
Clive 43 160
Dave 34 120

Let’s define the random variables X and Y as the salary (in £1000’s) and mortgage (in £1000’s) of a
randomly selected friend.

(a) Describe in words what µX and µY are in this context, and calculate µX and µY .
(b) Describe in words what σX and σY are in this context, and calculate σX and σY .
(c) Calculate σXY and ρXY .
(d) Give one reason why the mortgage of people with a high salary could be higher than of those with
a low salary.
(e) Give one reason why the mortgage of people with a high salary could be lower than of those with a
low salary.
(f) Describe in words what E(X|Y = 84) is in this context, and calculate E(X|Y = 84).
(g) Describe in words what E(X|Y = 160) is in this context, and calculate E(X|Y = 160).
2 ,
(h) Without doing any additional calculations, explain what would happen to the value of µX , µY , σX
σX ,σXY and ρXY if the salary was recorded in £ instead of £1000’s.