OCR MEI S3 2009 June — Question 1

Exam BoardOCR MEI
ModuleS3 (Statistics 3)
Year2009
SessionJune
TopicLinear combinations of normal random variables
TypeTwo or more different variables

1 Andy, a carpenter, constructs wooden shelf units for storing CDs. The wood used for the shelves has a thickness which is Normally distributed with mean 14 mm and standard deviation 0.55 mm . Andy works to a design which allows a gap of 145 mm between the shelves, but past experience has shown that the gap is Normally distributed with mean 144 mm and standard deviation 0.9 mm . Dimensions of shelves and gaps are assumed to be independent of each other.
  1. Find the probability that a randomly chosen gap is less than 145 mm .
  2. Find the probability that the combined height of a gap and a shelf is more than 160 mm . A complete unit has 7 shelves and 6 gaps.
  3. Find the probability that the overall height of a unit lies between 960 mm and 965 mm . Hence find the probability that at least 3 out of 4 randomly chosen units are between 960 mm and 965 mm high.
  4. I buy two randomly chosen CD units made by Andy. The probability that the difference in their heights is less than \(h \mathrm {~mm}\) is 0.95 . Find \(h\).