PMMT110 – A Level Mathematics 2

Tutorial Sheet 6
Discrete Random Variables
Mr. M. Chipoka & Dr. J. Musonda
School of Medicine and Health Sciences
University of Lusaka
September 20, 2024

Mark allocations are shown in brackets for time management (1 mark ≈ 1.2 minutes)

1. The discrete random variable X has the probability distribution given in the table below.

x -2 1 3 4 6

1 1 1 1 1
P(X = x)
4 6 3 12 6

(a) Write down the values of F (5) and P (5), for F a cummulative distribution function. (2)

(b) Find E(X) (2)

(c) Find Var(X) (3)

(d) Find E(7 − 2X) (2)

(e) Find Var(7 − 2X) (2)

(f) Find P(7 − 2X > X) (2)

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2. The discrete random variable X has probability function p(x) and cumulative distribu-
tion function F (x) given in the table below.

x 1 2 3 4 5

p(x) 0.10 a 0.28 c 0.24

F(x) 0.10 0.26 b 0.76 d

(a) Write down the value of d (1)

(b) Find the values of a, b and c (3)

(c) Write down the value of P(X > 4) (1)

(d) Two independent observations, X1 and X2 , are taken from the distribution of X.
Find the probability that X1 and X2 are both odd. (2)

(e) Given that X1 and X2 are both odd, find the probability that the sum of X1 and
X2 is 6. Give your answer to 3 significant figures. (3)

3. The random variable X has probability function

x2
P(X = x) = for x = 1, 2, 3, 4
k
(a) Show that k = 30 (2)

(b) Find P(X ̸= 4) (2)

(c) Find the exact value of E(X) (2)

(d) Find the exact value of Var(X) (4)

(e) Given that Y = 3X − 1, find E(Y 2 ) (4)

4. The discrete random variable X can take only the values 1, 2, 3 and 4. For these values,
the probability function is given by
ax + b
P(X = x) = for x = 1, 2, 3, 4
60
(a) Show that 5a + 2b = 30 (2)
13
(b) Given that F(3) = , find the value of a and the value of b (4)
20
(c) Given also that Y = X 2 , find the cumulative distribution function of Y (4)

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5. A random variable X has the distribution B(12, p).

(a) Given that p = 0.25, find

(i) P(X < 5) (1)

(ii) P(X ≥ 7) (2)

(b) Given that P (X = 0) = 0.05, find the value of p to 3 decimal places. (3)

(c) Given that the variance of X is 1.92, find the possible values of p. (4)

6. It is estimated that 4% of people have brown eyes. In a random sample of size n, the
expected number of people with brown eyes is 5.

(a) Calculate the value of n. (3)

(b) The expected number of people with brown eyes in a second random sample is 3.

Find the standard deviation of the number of people with brown eyes in this sample. (4)

7. A drugs company claims that 75% of patients suffering from depression recover when
treated with a new drug. A random sample of 10 patients with depression is taken from
a doctor’s records.

(a) Write down a suitable distribution to model the number of patients in this sample
who recover when treated with the new drug. (2)

(b) Given that the claim is correct, find the probability that the treatment will be
successful for exactly 6 patients. (2)

8. A disease occurs in 3% of a population.

(a) State any assumptions that are required to model the number of people with the
disease in a random sample of size n as a binomial distribution. (2)

(b) Using this model, find the probability of exactly 2 people having the disease in a
random sample of 10 people. (3)

(c) Find the mean and variance of the number of people with the disease in a random
sample of 100 people. (2)

(d) A doctor tests a random sample of 100 patients for the disease. He decides to offer
all patients a vaccination to protect them from the disease if more than 5 of the
sample have the disease. Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that
the doctor will offer all patients a vaccination. (3)

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 9. The random variable X has the discrete uniform distribution
1
P(X = x) = for x = 1, 2, . . . , n
n
(a) Given that E(X) = 5, show that n = 9. (3)

(b) Find P(X < 7) (2)

(c) Find Var(X) (4)

10. Results of a medical study showed that some, among patients treated with drug X had
later developed migrain headaches. The study revealed that the occurence of migrains
followed a Poisson distribution with µ = 8 incidents per year.

For the next year, find probabilities of the following occurences:

(a) Exactly two cases. (2)

(b) More than 4 such cases. (3)

(c) Atmost 6 such cases. (2)

(d) No such a case, or between 3 to 5 cases. (3)

11. The random variable X has probability function

(
kx, x = 1, 2, 3,
P(X = x) =
k(x + 1), x = 4, 5,

where k is a constant.
(a) Find the value of k. (2)

(b) Find the exact value of E(X). (2)

(c) Show, to 3 significant figures, that Var(X) = 1.47. (4)

(d) Find, to 1 decimal place, Var(4 − 3X). (2)

End of Tutorial Sheet

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