2.04f Find normal probabilities: Z transformation

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Edexcel S2 2018 October Q6
9 marks Standard +0.3
One side of a square is measured to the nearest centimetre and this measurement is multiplied by 4 to estimate the perimeter of the square. The random variable, \(W \mathrm {~cm}\), represents the estimated perimeter of the square minus the true perimeter of the square. \(W\) is uniformly distributed over the interval \([ a , b ]\)
  1. Explain why \(a = - 2\) and \(b = 2\) The standard deviation of \(W\) is \(\sigma\)
    1. Find \(\sigma\)
    2. Find the probability that the estimated perimeter of the square is within \(\sigma\) of the true perimeter of the square. One side of each of 100 squares are now measured. Using a suitable approximation,
  2. find the probability that \(W\) is greater than 1.9 for at least 5 of these squares.
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Edexcel S2 2003 January Q5
15 marks Standard +0.3
5. A farmer noticed that some of the eggs laid by his hens had double yolks. He estimated the probability of this happening to be 0.05 . Eggs are packed in boxes of 12 . Find the probability that in a box, the number of eggs with double yolks will be
  1. exactly one,
  2. more than three. A customer bought three boxes.
  3. Find the probability that only 2 of the boxes contained exactly 1 egg with a double yolk. The farmer delivered 10 boxes to a local shop.
  4. Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that the delivery contained at least 9 eggs with double yolks. The weight of an individual egg can be modelled by a normal distribution with mean 65 g and standard deviation 2.4 g .
  5. Find the probability that a randomly chosen egg weighs more than 68 g .
Edexcel S2 2005 January Q1
4 marks Easy -1.2
  1. The random variables \(R , S\) and \(T\) are distributed as follows
$$R \sim \mathrm {~B} ( 15,0.3 ) , \quad S \sim \mathrm { Po } ( 7.5 ) , \quad T \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 8,2 ^ { 2 } \right) .$$ Find
  1. \(\mathrm { P } ( R = 5 )\),
  2. \(\mathrm { P } ( S = 5 )\),
  3. \(\mathrm { P } ( T = 5 )\).
Edexcel S2 2005 January Q4
10 marks Moderate -0.3
4. In an experiment, there are 250 trials and each trial results in a success or a failure.
  1. Write down two other conditions needed to make this into a binomial experiment. It is claimed that \(10 \%\) of students can tell the difference between two brands of baked beans. In a random sample of 250 students, 40 of them were able to distinguish the difference between the two brands.
  2. Using a normal approximation, test at the \(1 \%\) level of significance whether or not the claim is justified. Use a one-tailed test.
  3. Comment on the acceptability of the assumptions you needed to carry out the test.
Edexcel S2 2005 January Q5
13 marks Moderate -0.3
5. From company records, a manager knows that the probability that a defective article is produced by a particular production line is 0.032 . A random sample of 10 articles is selected from the production line.
  1. Find the probability that exactly 2 of them are defective. On another occasion, a random sample of 100 articles is taken.
  2. Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that fewer than 4 of them are defective. At a later date, a random sample of 1000 is taken.
  3. Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that more than 42 are defective.
    (6)
Edexcel S2 2006 January Q7
19 marks Standard +0.3
7. A teacher thinks that \(20 \%\) of the pupils in a school read the Deano comic regularly. He chooses 20 pupils at random and finds 9 of them read the Deano.
    1. Test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the percentage of pupils that read the Deano is different from 20\%. State your hypotheses clearly.
    2. State all the possible numbers of pupils that read the Deano from a sample of size 20 that will make the test in part (a)(i) significant at the \(5 \%\) level.
      (9) The teacher takes another 4 random samples of size 20 and they contain 1, 3, 1 and 4 pupils that read the Deano.
  1. By combining all 5 samples and using a suitable approximation test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not this provides evidence that the percentage of pupils in the school that read the Deano is different from 20\%.
  2. Comment on your results for the tests in part (a) and part (b).
Edexcel S2 2007 January Q3
15 marks Standard +0.3
3. For a particular type of plant \(45 \%\) have white flowers and the remainder have coloured flowers. Gardenmania sells plants in batches of 12. A batch is selected at random. Calculate the probability that this batch contains
  1. exactly 5 plants with white flowers,
  2. more plants with white flowers than coloured ones. Gardenmania takes a random sample of 10 batches of plants.
  3. Find the probability that exactly 3 of these batches contain more plants with white flowers than coloured ones. Due to an increasing demand for these plants by large companies, Gardenmania decides to sell them in batches of 50 .
  4. Use a suitable approximation to calculate the probability that a batch of 50 plants contains more than 25 plants with white flowers.
Edexcel S2 2007 January Q4
12 marks Moderate -0.8
4.
  1. State the condition under which the normal distribution may be used as an approximation to the Poisson distribution.
  2. Explain why a continuity correction must be incorporated when using the normal distribution as an approximation to the Poisson distribution. A company has yachts that can only be hired for a week at a time. All hiring starts on a Saturday.
    During the winter the mean number of yachts hired per week is 5 .
  3. Calculate the probability that fewer than 3 yachts are hired on a particular Saturday in winter. During the summer the mean number of yachts hired per week increases to 25 . The company has only 30 yachts for hire.
  4. Using a suitable approximation find the probability that the demand for yachts cannot be met on a particular Saturday in the summer. In the summer there are 16 Saturdays on which a yacht can be hired.
  5. Estimate the number of Saturdays in the summer that the company will not be able to meet the demand for yachts.
Edexcel S2 2008 January Q6
12 marks Standard +0.3
6. The probability that a sunflower plant grows over 1.5 metres high is 0.25 . A random sample of 40 sunflower plants is taken and each sunflower plant is measured and its height recorded.
  1. Find the probability that the number of sunflower plants over 1.5 m high is between 8 and 13 (inclusive) using
    1. a Poisson approximation,
    2. a Normal approximation.
  2. Write down which of the approximations used in part (a) is the most accurate estimate of the probability. You must give a reason for your answer.
Edexcel S2 2010 January Q5
9 marks Standard +0.3
  1. A café serves breakfast every morning. Customers arrive for breakfast at random at a rate of 1 every 6 minutes.
Find the probability that
  1. fewer than 9 customers arrive for breakfast on a Monday morning between 10 am and 11 am. The café serves breakfast every day between 8 am and 12 noon.
  2. Using a suitable approximation, estimate the probability that more than 50 customers arrive for breakfast next Tuesday.
Edexcel S3 2021 January Q6
18 marks Standard +0.8
6. A potter makes decorative tiles in two colours, red and yellow. The length, \(R \mathrm {~cm}\), of the red tiles has a normal distribution with mean 15 cm and standard deviation 1.5 cm . The length, \(Y \mathrm {~cm}\), of the yellow tiles has the normal distribution \(\mathrm { N } \left( 12,0.8 ^ { 2 } \right)\). The random variables \(R\) and \(Y\) are independent. A red tile and a yellow tile are chosen at random.
  1. Find the probability that the yellow tile is longer than the red tile. Taruni buys 3 red tiles and 1 yellow tile.
  2. Find the probability that the total length of the 3 red tiles is less than 4 times the length of the yellow tile. Stefan defines the random variable \(X = a R + b Y\), where \(a\) and \(b\) are constants. He wants to use values of \(a\) and \(b\) such that \(X\) has a mean of 780 and minimum variance.
  3. Find the value of \(a\) and the value of \(b\) that Stefan should use. \includegraphics[max width=\textwidth, alt={}, center]{ba3f3f9c-53d2-4e95-b2f3-3f617f1821ed-19_2255_50_314_34}
Edexcel S3 2022 January Q2
8 marks Standard +0.3
2. Krishi owns a farm on which he keeps chickens. He selects, at random, 10 of the eggs produced and weighs each of them.
You may assume that these weights are a random sample from a normal distribution with standard deviation 1.9 g The total weight of these 10 eggs is 537.2 g
  1. Find a \(95 \%\) confidence interval for the mean weight of the eggs produced by Krishi's chickens. Krishi was hoping to obtain a \(99 \%\) confidence interval of width at most 1.5 g
  2. Calculate the minimum sample size necessary to achieve this. \includegraphics[max width=\textwidth, alt={}, center]{fc43aabf-ad04-4852-8539-981cef608f31-04_2662_95_107_1962}
Edexcel S3 2022 January Q7
14 marks Standard +0.8
  1. A market stall sells vegetables. Two of the vegetables sold are broccoli heads and cabbages.
The weights of these broccoli heads, \(B\) kilograms, follow a normal distribution $$B \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 0.588,0.084 ^ { 2 } \right)$$ The weights of these cabbages, \(C\) kilograms, follow a normal distribution $$C \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 0.908,0.039 ^ { 2 } \right)$$
  1. Find the probability that the total weight of two randomly chosen broccoli heads is less than the weight of a randomly chosen cabbage. Broccoli heads cost \(\pounds 2.50\) per kg and cabbages cost \(\pounds 3.00\) per kg. Jaymini buys 1 broccoli head and 2 cabbages, chosen randomly.
  2. Find the probability that she pays more than £7 The market stall offers a discount for buying 5 or more broccoli heads. The price with the discount is \(\pounds w\) per kg. Let \(\pounds D\) be the price with the discount of 5 broccoli heads.
  3. Find, in terms of \(w\), the mean and standard deviation of \(D\) Given that \(\mathrm { P } ( D < 6 ) < 0.1\)
  4. find the smallest possible value of \(w\), giving your answer to 2 decimal places.
Edexcel S3 2022 January Q1
10 marks Moderate -0.3
  1. The weights, \(x \mathrm {~kg}\), of each of 10 watermelons selected at random from Priya's shop were recorded. The results are summarised as follows
$$\sum x = 114.2 \quad \sum x ^ { 2 } = 1310.464$$
  1. Calculate unbiased estimates of the mean and the variance of the weights of the watermelons in Priya's shop. Priya researches the weight of watermelons, for the variety she has in her shop, and discovers that the weights of these watermelons are normally distributed with a standard deviation of 0.8 kg
  2. Calculate a \(95 \%\) confidence interval for the mean weight of watermelons in Priya's shop. Give the limits of your confidence interval to 2 decimal places. Priya claims that the confidence interval in part (b) suggests that nearly all of the watermelons in her shop weigh more than 10.5 kg
  3. Use your answer to part (b) to estimate the smallest proportion of watermelons in her shop that weigh less than 10.5 kg
Edexcel S3 2022 January Q5
17 marks Standard +0.3
  1. Charlie is training for three events: a 1500 m swim, a 40 km bike ride and a 10 km run.
From past experience his times, in minutes, for each of the three events independently have the following distributions. $$\begin{aligned} & S \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 41,5.2 ^ { 2 } \right) \text { represents the time for the swim } \\ & B \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 81,4.2 ^ { 2 } \right) \text { represents the time for the bike ride } \\ & R \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 57,6.6 ^ { 2 } \right) \text { represents the time for the run } \end{aligned}$$
  1. Find the probability that Charlie's total time for a randomly selected swim, bike ride and run exceeds 3 hours.
  2. Find the probability that the time for a randomly selected swim will be at least 20 minutes quicker than the time for a randomly selected run. Given that \(\mathrm { P } ( S + B + R > t ) = 0.95\)
  3. find the value of \(t\) A triathlon consists of a 1500 m swim, immediately followed by a 40 km bike ride, immediately followed by a 10 km run. Charlie uses the answer to part (a) to find the probability that, in 6 successive independent triathlons, his time will exceed 3 hours on at least one occasion.
  4. Find the answer Charlie should obtain. Jane says that Charlie should not have used the answer to part (a) for the calculation in part (d).
  5. Explain whether or not Jane is correct.
Edexcel S3 2022 January Q6
14 marks Standard +0.3
  1. A farmer sells strawberries in baskets. The contents of each of 100 randomly selected baskets were weighed and the results, given to the nearest gram, are shown below.
Weight of strawberries (grams)Number of baskets
302-3035
304-30513
306-30710
308-30918
310-31125
312-31320
314-3155
316-3174
The farmer proposes that the weight of strawberries per basket, in grams, should be modelled by a normal distribution with a mean of 310 g and standard deviation 4 g . Using his model, the farmer obtains the following expected frequencies.
Weight of strawberries (s, grams)Expected frequency
\(s \leqslant 303.5\)\(a\)
\(303.5 < s \leqslant 305.5\)7.8
\(305.5 < s \leqslant 307.5\)13.6
\(307.5 < s \leqslant 309.5\)18.4
\(309.5 < s \leqslant 311.5\)19.6
\(311.5 < s \leqslant 313.5\)16.3
\(313.5 < s \leqslant 315.5\)10.6
\(s > 315.5\)\(b\)
  1. Find the value of \(a\) and the value of \(b\). Give your answers correct to one decimal place. Before \(s \leqslant 303.5\) and \(s > 315.5\) are included, for the remaining cells, $$\sum \frac { ( O - E ) ^ { 2 } } { E } = 9.71$$
  2. Using a 5\% significance level, test whether the data are consistent with the model. You should state your hypotheses, the test statistic and the critical value used. An alternative model uses estimates for the population mean and standard deviation from the data given. Using these estimated values no expected frequency is below 5
    Another test is to be carried out, using a \(5 \%\) significance level, to assess whether the data are consistent with this alternative model.
  3. State the effect, if any, on the critical value for this test. Give a reason for your answer.
Edexcel S3 2023 January Q1
12 marks Standard +0.3
1 A machine fills bottles with mineral water.
The machine is checked every day to ensure that it is working correctly. On a particular day a random sample of 100 bottles is taken. The volume of water, \(x\) millilitres, for each bottle is measured and each measurement is coded using $$y = x - 1000$$ The results are summarised below $$\sum y = 847 \quad \sum y ^ { 2 } = 13510.09$$
    1. Show that the value of the unbiased estimate of the mean of \(x\) is 1008.47
    2. Calculate the unbiased estimate of the variance of \(x\) The machine was initially set so that the volume of water in a bottle had a mean value of 1010 millilitres. Later, a test at the \(5 \%\) significance level is used to determine whether or not the mean volume of water in a bottle has changed. If it has changed then the machine is stopped and reset.
  1. Write down suitable null and alternative hypotheses for a 2-tailed test.
  2. Find the critical region for \(\bar { X }\) in the above test.
  3. Using your answer to part (a) and your critical region found in part (c), comment on whether or not the machine needs to be stopped and reset.
    Give a reason for your answer.
  4. Explain why the use of \(\sigma ^ { 2 } = s ^ { 2 }\) is reasonable in this situation.
Edexcel S3 2023 January Q6
10 marks Moderate -0.3
6 A garden centre sells bags of stones and large bags of gravel.
The weight, \(X\) kilograms, of stones in a bag can be modelled by a normal distribution with unknown mean \(\mu\) and known standard deviation 0.4 The stones in each of a random sample of 36 bags from a large batch is weighed. The total weight of stones in these 36 bags is found to be 806.4 kg
  1. Find a 98\% confidence interval for the mean weight of stones in the batch.
  2. Explain why the use of the Central Limit theorem is not required to answer part (a) The manufacturer of these bags of stones claims that bags in this batch have a mean weight of 22.5 kg
  3. Using your answer to part (a), comment on the claim made by the manufacturer. The weight, \(Y\) kilograms, of gravel in a large bag can be modelled by a normal distribution with mean 850 kg and standard deviation 5 kg A builder purchases 10 large bags of gravel.
  4. Find the probability that the mean weight of gravel in the 10 large bags is less than 848 kg
Edexcel S3 2023 January Q7
8 marks Standard +0.3
7 At a particular supermarket, the times taken to serve each customer in a queue at a standard checkout may be modelled by a normal distribution with mean 240 seconds and standard deviation 20 seconds. There is a queue of 3 customers at a standard checkout.
Making a reasonable assumption about the times taken to serve these customers,
  1. find the probability that the total time taken to serve the 3 customers will be less than 11 minutes.
  2. State the assumption you have made in part (a) In the supermarket there is also an express checkout, which is reserved for customers buying 10 or fewer items. The time taken to serve a customer at this express checkout may be modelled by a normal distribution with mean 100 seconds and standard deviation 8 seconds. On a particular day Jiang has 8 items to pay for and has to choose whether to join a queue of 3 customers waiting at a standard checkout or a queue of 7 customers waiting at the express checkout. Using a similar assumption to that made in part (a),
  3. find the probability that the total time taken to serve the 3 customers at the standard checkout will exceed the total time taken to serve the 7 customers at the express checkout.
Edexcel S3 2021 October Q1
5 marks Moderate -0.3
  1. A machine makes screws with a mean length of 30 mm and a standard deviation of 2.5 mm .
A manager claims that, following some repairs, the machine is now making screws with a mean length of less than 30 mm . The manager takes a random sample of 80 screws and finds that they have a mean length of 29.5 mm . Use a suitable test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, to determine whether there is evidence to support the manager's claim. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S3 2021 October Q7
17 marks Standard +0.3
  1. A company produces bricks.
The weight of a brick, \(B \mathrm {~kg}\), is such that \(B \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 1.96 , \sqrt { 0.003 } ^ { 2 } \right)\) Two bricks are chosen at random.
  1. Find the probability that the difference in weight of the 2 bricks is greater than 0.1 kg A random sample of \(n\) bricks is to be taken.
  2. Find the minimum sample size such that the probability of the sample mean being greater than 2 is less than 1\% The bricks are randomly selected and stacked on pallets.
    The weight of an empty pallet, \(E \mathrm {~kg}\), is such that \(E \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 21.8 , \sqrt { 0.6 } ^ { 2 } \right)\) The random variable \(M\) represents the total weight of a pallet stacked with 500 bricks. The random variable \(T\) represents the total weight of a container of cement.
    Given that \(T\) is independent of \(M\) and that \(T \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 774 , \sqrt { 1.8 } ^ { 2 } \right)\)
  3. calculate \(\mathrm { P } ( 4 T > 100 + 3 M )\)
Edexcel S3 2018 Specimen Q4
11 marks Standard +0.3
4. A farm produces potatoes. The potatoes are packed into sacks. The weight of a sack of potatoes is modelled by a normal distribution with mean 25.6 kg and standard deviation 0.24 kg
  1. Find the probability that two randomly chosen sacks of potatoes differ in weight by more than 0.5 kg Sacks of potatoes are randomly selected and packed onto pallets. The weight of an empty pallet is modelled by a normal distribution with mean 20.0 kg and standard deviation 0.32 kg Each full pallet of potatoes holds 30 sacks of potatoes.
  2. Find the probability that the total weight of a randomly chosen full pallet of potatoes is greater than 785 kg
    \includegraphics[max width=\textwidth, alt={}, center]{0434a6c1-686a-449d-ba16-dbb8e60288e8-15_2258_51_313_36}
Edexcel S3 Specimen Q2
9 marks Standard +0.3
2. Philip and James are racing car drivers. Philip's lap times, in seconds, are normally distributed with mean 90 and variance 9. James' lap times, in seconds, are normally distributed with mean 91 and variance 12. The lap times of Philip and James are independent. Before a race, they each take a qualifying lap.
  1. Find the probability that James' time for the qualifying lap is less than Philip's. The race is made up of 60 laps. Assuming that they both start from the same starting line and lap times are independent,
  2. find the probability that Philip beats James in the race by more than 2 minutes.
Edexcel S3 Specimen Q3
10 marks Moderate -0.3
3. A woodwork teacher measures the width, \(w \mathrm {~mm}\), of a board. The measured width, \(X \mathrm {~mm}\), is normally distributed with mean \(w \mathrm {~mm}\) and standard deviation 0.5 mm .
  1. Find the probability that \(X\) is within 0.6 mm of \(w\). The same board is measured 16 times and the results are recorded.
  2. Find the probability that the mean of these results is within 0.3 mm of \(w\). Given that the mean of these 16 measurements is 35.6 mm ,
  3. find a 98\% confidence interval for \(w\).
Edexcel S3 2006 January Q2
9 marks Moderate -0.5
2. A workshop makes two types of electrical resistor. The resistance, \(X\) ohms, of resistors of Type A is such that \(X \sim \mathrm {~N} ( 20,4 )\).
The resistance, \(Y\) ohms, of resistors of Type B is such that \(Y \sim \mathrm {~N} ( 10,0.84 )\).
When a resistor of each type is connected into a circuit, the resistance \(R\) ohms of the circuit is given by \(R = X + Y\) where \(X\) and \(Y\) are independent. Find
  1. \(\mathrm { E } ( R )\),
  2. \(\operatorname { Var } ( R )\),
  3. \(\mathrm { P } ( 28.9 < R < 32.64 )\) (6)