OCR S2 2011 January — Question 6

Exam BoardOCR
ModuleS2 (Statistics 2)
Year2011
SessionJanuary
TopicPoisson Distribution
TypeExplain or apply conditions in context

6 The number of randomly occurring events in a given time interval is denoted by \(R\). In order that \(R\) is well modelled by a Poisson distribution, it is necessary that events occur independently.
  1. Let \(R\) represent the number of customers dining at a restaurant on a randomly chosen weekday lunchtime. Explain what the condition 'events occur independently' means in this context, and give a reason why it would probably not hold in this context. Let \(D\) represent the number of tables booked at the restaurant on a randomly chosen day. Assume that \(D\) can be well modelled by distribution \(\operatorname { Po } ( 7 )\).
  2. Find \(\mathrm { P } ( D < 5 )\).
  3. Use a suitable approximation to find the probability that, in five randomly chosen days, the total number of tables booked is greater than 40 .