OCR S3 2010 June — Question 7

Exam BoardOCR
ModuleS3 (Statistics 3)
Year2010
SessionJune
TopicLinear combinations of normal random variables
TypeSingle sum threshold probability

7 The employees of a certain company have masses which are normally distributed. Female employees have a mean of 66.7 kg and standard deviation 9.3 kg , and male employees have a mean of 78.3 kg and standard deviation 8.5 kg . It may be assumed that all employees' masses are independent. On the ground floor 6 women and 9 men enter the empty staff lift for which it is stated that the maximum load is 1150 kg .
  1. Calculate the probability that the maximum load is exceeded. At the first floor all 15 passengers leave and 6 women, 8 men and an unknown employee enter.
  2. Assuming that the unknown employee is equally likely to be a woman or a man, calculate the probability that the maximum load is now exceeded.