The binomial distribution
Practice section 4 of 7
Questions 19–24 in this collection
Practice questions
Discussion practice · 1 of 6
Convert the hit count into a score
Teams of 8 people enter a shooting competition. Each member of a team takes a shot at the target. The number of points scored by a team is obtained by where is the number of shots that hit the target. For a particular team, each member of the team independently has a probability of 0.75 of hitting the target.
(i) Find the probability that a randomly chosen team scores more than 6 points.
(ii) Find the number of points that a team is most likely to score.
CJC · Discussion · Question 7
See which counts the words include
More than 6 points
n = 8, p = 0.75. Included counts: 4–8.
Highlighted bars form the requested event.
0.97270203 ≈ 0.973 (3 s.f.)
Solution
Discussion practice · 2 of 6
Game winnings, a mode and a tournament cutoff
A bag contains 4 red, 5 blue and 6 green balls. The balls are indistinguishable except for their colour. A trial consists of drawing a ball at random from the bag, noting its colour and replacing it in the bag. A game is played by performing 10 trials in all.
The player receives $0.50 for every blue ball drawn in a game. He receives nothing if balls of other colours are drawn.
(a) Find the probability that, in a game, he receives
(i) exactly $3,
(ii) more than $2.50,
(b) Find also the amount a player is most likely to receive.
(c) At the start of a tournament, each player plays the above game once. Players who earned more than $ proceed to the next round. Find the least value of such that, in a random sample of 10 players, the probability that all the 10 players proceed to the next round is less than 0.1.
CJC · Discussion · Question 8
See which counts the words include
Exactly $3
n = 10, p = 0.3333333333333333. Included counts: 6–6.
Highlighted bars form the requested event.
0.056901895 ≈ 0.0569 (3 s.f.)
Solution
Discussion practice · 3 of 6
Packets, nested counts and a modal-parameter range
A manufacturer produces a large number of coloured glowing sticks, which are packed in packets of 8. Each packet consists of randomly chosen coloured glowing sticks. On average, 12% of the glowing sticks are green.
(i) Explain the significance of ‘large number’ in the first sentence.
(ii) Find the probability that a randomly chosen packet of glowing sticks contains at least 3 green glowing sticks.
(iii) Ian buys 40 randomly chosen packets of glowing sticks for a concert. Find the probability that fewer than 6 of these packets contain at least 3 green glowing sticks.
On average, the proportion of glowing sticks that are blue is . It is known that the modal number of blue glowing sticks in a packet is 3.
(iv) Use this information to find exactly the range of values that can take.
[2018/YJC/II/8]
CJC · Discussion · Question 9
See which counts the words include
Packet: at least 3 green
n = 8, p = 0.12. Included counts: 3–8.
Highlighted bars form the requested event.
0.060789175 ≈ 0.0608 (3 s.f.)
Solution
Discussion practice · 4 of 6
Estimate a defect probability from a frequency table
A company manufactures a wide variety of components for use in domestic appliances.
The company introduces a new type of light fitting for refrigerators. Each day a supervisor selects a sample of 100 of the light fittings for testing.
(i) How should the light fittings be selected? Give a reason for this method of selection.
The supervisor records the number of faulty light fittings found on each of 150 working days. Her results are shown in the table.
| Number faulty | Number of days |
|---|---|
| 0 | 4 |
| 1 | 19 |
| 2 | 38 |
| 3 | 41 |
| 4 | 22 |
| 5 | 16 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 or more | 0 |
(ii) Use the information in the table to estimate , the probability that a light fitting is faulty.
(iii) Assuming the number of faulty fittings found each day follows the binomial distribution , find the expected number of days on which 3 faulty fittings are found in a period of 150 working days.
[2021/II/11(a)]
CJC · Discussion · Question 10
Solution
Review practice · 5 of 6
Seeds: when a binomial model is an approximation
(i) In a small plot of land, there are 20 seeds being sown, of which only 4 will germinate. If 5 seeds are selected at random without replacement, find the probability that at least a seed that germinates would be selected. [3]
(ii) In a huge plot of land where a large number of seeds are sown, 10% of the seeds would germinate. If 5 seeds are selected at random without replacement, find the probability that more than a seed that germinates would be selected. [3]
State an assumption made in calculating the probability in (ii). [1]
[2009/DHS/II/7]
CJC · Review Problems · Question 1
Solution
Review practice · 6 of 6
Separate a bulb fault from simultaneous bulb-and-switch faults
When a large number of flashlights leaving a factory is inspected, it is found that the bulb is faulty in 1% of the flashlights and the switch is faulty in 1.5% of them. Assuming that the faults occur independently and at random, find the probability that a sample of
(i) 10 flashlights contains no faulty bulb, [2]
(ii) 80 flashlights contains at least one flashlight with both a faulty bulb and a faulty switch. [3]
[2009/MJC/II/9(a)]
CJC · Review Problems · Question 2
See which counts the words include
(i) No faulty bulbs
n = 10, p = 0.01. Included counts: 0–0.
Highlighted bars form the requested event.
0.90438208 ≈ 0.904 (3 s.f.)