SECTION 4.4 EXERCISES

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For Exercise 4.63, see page 247; for Exercise 4.64, see page 251; for Exercises 4.65 and 4.66, see page 255; and for Exercise 4.67, see page 257.

Question 4.68

4.68 Find the mean of the random variable. A random variable X has the following distribution.

X -1 0 1 2
Probability 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.3

Find the mean for this random variable. Show your work.

Question 4.69

4.69 Explain what happens when the sample size gets large. Consider the following scenarios: (1) You take a sample of two observations on a random variable and compute the sample mean, (2) you take a sample of 100 observations on the same random variable and compute the sample mean, (3) you take a sample of 1000 observations on the same random variable and compute the sample mean. Explain in simple language how close you expect the sample mean to be to the mean of the random variable as you move from Scenario 1 to Scenario 2 to Scenario 3.

Question 4.70

4.70 Find some means. Suppose that X is a random variable with mean 30 and standard deviation 4. Also suppose that Y is a random variable with mean 50 and standard deviation 8. Find the mean of the random variable Z for each of the following cases. Be sure to show your work.

  1. (a) Z = 35 − 10X.

  2. (b) Z = 12X − 5.

  3. (c) Z = X + Y.

  4. (d) Z = XY.

  5. (e) Z = −2X + 2Y.

Question 4.71

4.71 Find the variance and the standard deviation. A random variable X has the following distribution.

X −1 0 1 2
Probability 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.2

Find the variance and the standard deviation for this random variable. Show your work.

Question 4.72

4.72 Find some variances and standard deviations. Suppose that X is a random variable with mean 30 and standard deviation 4. Also suppose that Y is a random variable with mean 50 and standard deviation 8. Assume that the correlation between X and Y is zero. Find the variance and the standard deviation of the random variable Z for each of the following cases. Be sure to show your work.

  1. (a) Z = 35 − 10X.

  2. (b) Z = 12X − 5.

  3. (c) Z = X + Y.

  4. (d) Z = XY.

  5. (e) Z = −2X + 2Y.

Question 4.73

4.73 What happens if the correlation is not zero? Suppose that X is a random variable with mean 30 and standard deviation 4. Also suppose that Y is a random variable with mean 50 and standard deviation 8. Assume that the correlation between X and Y is 0.5. Find the mean of the random variable Z for each of the following cases. Be sure to show your work.

  1. (a) Z = 35 − 10X.

  2. (b) Z = 12X − 5.

  3. (c) Z = X + Y.

  4. (d) Z = XY.

  5. (e) Z = −2X + 2Y.

Question 4.74

4.74 What’s wrong? In each of the following scenarios, there is something wrong. Describe what is wrong and give a reason for your answer.

  1. (a) If you toss a fair coin three times and get heads all three times, then the probability of getting a tail on the next toss is much greater than one-half.

  2. (b) If you multiply a random variable by 10, then the mean is multiplied by 10 and the variance is multiplied by 10.

  3. (c) When finding the mean of the sum of two random variables, you need to know the correlation between them.

Question 4.75

4.75 Servings of fruits and vegetables. The following table gives the distribution of the number of servings of fruits and vegetables consumed per day in a population.

Number of servings X 0 1 2 3 4 5
Probability 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1

Find the mean for this random variable.

Question 4.76

4.76 Mean of the distribution for the number of aces. In Exercise 4.54 (page 244) you examined the probability distribution for the number of aces when you are dealt two cards in the game of Texas hold ’em. Let X represent the number of aces in a randomly selected deal of two cards in this game. Here is the probability distribution for the random variable X:

Value of X 0 1 2
Probability 0.8507 0.1448 0.0045

Find μX, the mean of the probability distribution of X.

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Question 4.77

4.77 Standard deviation of the number of aces. Refer to Exercise 4.76. Find the standard deviation of the number of aces.

Question 4.78

4.78 Standard deviation for fruits and vegetables. Refer to Exercise 4.75. Find the variance and the standard deviation for the distribution of the number of servings of fruits and vegetables.

Question 4.79

4.79 Suppose that the correlation is zero. Refer to Example 4.38 (page 259).

  1. (a) Recompute the standard deviation for the total of the natural-gas bill and the electricity bill, assuming that the correlation is zero.

  2. (b) Is this standard deviation larger or smaller than the standard deviation computed in Example 4.38? Explain why.

Question 4.80

4.80 Find the mean of the sum. Figure 4.12 (page 245) displays the density curve of the sum Y = X1 + X2 of two independent random numbers, each uniformly distributed between 0 and 1.

  1. (a) The mean of a continuous random variable is the balance point of its density curve. Use this fact to find the mean of Y from Figure 4.12.

  2. (b) Use the same fact to find the means of X1 and X2. (They have the density curve pictured in Figure 4.9, page 240.) Verify that the mean of Y is the sum of the mean of X1 and the mean of X2.

Question 4.81

4.81 Calcium supplements and calcium in the diet. Refer to Example 4.39 (page 260). Suppose that people who have high intakes of calcium in their diets are more compliant than those who have low intakes. What effect would this have on the calculation of the standard deviation for the total calcium intake? Explain your answer.

Question 4.82

image 4.82 Toss a four-sided die twice. Role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons use many different types of dice. Suppose that a four-sided die has faces marked 1, 2, 3, and 4. The intelligence of a character is determined by rolling this die twice and adding 1 to the sum of the spots. The faces are equally likely, and the two rolls are independent. What is the average (mean) intelligence for such characters? How spread out are their intelligences, as measured by the standard deviation of the distribution?

Question 4.83

4.83 Means and variances of sums. The rules for means and variances allow you to find the mean and variance of a sum of random variables without first finding the distribution of the sum, which is usually much harder to do.

  1. (a) A single toss of a balanced coin has either 0 or 1 head, each with probability 1/2. What are the mean and standard deviation of the number of heads?

  2. (b) Toss a coin four times. Use the rules for means and variances to find the mean and standard deviation of the total number of heads.

  3. (c) Example 4.23 (page 238) finds the distribution of the number of heads in four tosses. Find the mean and standard deviation from this distribution. Your results in parts (b) and (c) should agree.

Question 4.84

image 4.84 What happens when the correlation is 1? We know that variances add if the random variables involved are uncorrelated (ρ = 0), but not otherwise. The opposite extreme is perfect positive correlation (ρ = 1). Show by using the general addition rule for variances that, in this case, the standard deviations add. That is, if .

Question 4.85

4.85 Will you assume independence? In which of the following games of chance would you be willing to assume independence of X and Y in making a probability model? Explain your answer in each case.

  1. (a) In blackjack, you are dealt two cards and examine the total points X on the cards (face cards count 10 points). You can choose to be dealt another card and compete based on the total points Y on all three cards.

  2. (b) In craps, the betting is based on successive rolls of two dice. X is the sum of the faces on the first roll, and Y the sum of the faces on the next roll.

Question 4.86

4.86 Transform the distribution of heights from centimeters to inches. A report of the National Center for Health Statistics says that the heights of 20-year-old men have mean 176.8 centimeters (cm) and standard deviation 7.2 cm. There are 2.54 centimeters in an inch. What are the mean and standard deviation in inches?

Question 4.87

4.87 Fire insurance. An insurance company looks at the records for millions of homeowners and sees that the mean loss from fire in a year is μ = $300 per person. (Most of us have no loss, but a few lose their homes. The $300 is the average loss.) The company plans to sell fire insurance for $300 plus enough to cover its costs and profit. Explain clearly why it would be stupid to sell only 10 policies. Then explain why selling thousands of such policies is a safe business.

Question 4.88

4.88 Mean and standard deviation for 10 and for 12 policies. In fact, the insurance company sees that in the entire population of homeowners, the mean loss from fire is μ = $300 and the standard deviation of the loss is σ = $400. What are the mean and standard deviation of the average loss for 10 policies? (Losses on separate policies are independent.) What are the mean and standard deviation of the average loss for 12 policies?