Worked solution
Keep the square-root growth in the large-sample tail
, with mean 3 and variance 4. S sums 100 independent observations of X; T sums a further 300 independent observations. Give numerical answers to 3 decimal places.
(i) Find .
(ii) Find .
(iii) N sums n independent observations of X. State the approximate value of as n becomes very large, with justification.
[1989/II/9]
CJC · Discussion · Question 13
Answer
(i)0.309; (ii)0.235 (3 d.p.); (iii)probability tends to 0.
Define the two independent observation blocks
and . The blocks are independent because they use disjoint independent observations.
(i) Sum upper tail
to 3 decimal places.
(ii) Find the distribution of the difference
. . Hence and to 3 decimal places.
(iii) Standardise the large-sample threshold
. Thus .
(iii) Justify the limiting probability
As , , so the standard-normal upper-tail probability tends to 0. The source writes this informally as ; precisely, the threshold tends to infinity and . The requested approximate probability for very large n is 0.
Common mistakes
3 S is a scale of one sum, so its variance is 9 Var(S). The large-n denominator is√(4 n), not 4 n.
Solution notes
All three asks, original variance 4, observation indices, every source sum/difference mean/variance term, probabilities/rounding and all standardisation/limit stages retained. Square roots preserved from rendered source; infinity notation qualified as a tail limit. No marks printed.