Problem Set 2 - Introduction to Statistics and Programming
Due date: March 05, 2025
Instructions
• This problem set is to be submitted individually. However, you are permitted to work in groups
but if two answers are identical may lead to the issue of plagiarism.
• There are four sections to this problem set to test your understanding of the basic concepts
discussed in class so far.
• All the answers to this problem set must be presented in a pdf document. If you are solving in
your notebook, then scan the pages and create pdf and upload the pdf document.
• The deadline for submission is March 05, 2025 8:00 PM. All submissions must be made on
Moodle. Your final submission for the pdf document should be named
“lastname.firstname_ps2.pdf”. E.g.neeti-ps2.pdf
Section I Probability (10 points)
Imagine you are selecting a new laptop, and you need to make choices in three categories:
brand, processor type, and screen size. The available options are given in Table 1 and you
have to choose one item from each category. The possible choices are as follows: (2.5 points)
Table 1: Laptop Options
Category Choices
Brand DELL or HP
Processor Intel or IMD
Screen Size 13th Inch or 15th Inch
Answer the following questions.
(a) List all the outcomes in the sample space.
(b) Let X be the event that Dell brand laptop is chosen. List all the outcomes in X.
(c) Let Y be the event that a laptop is chosen with an Intel processor. List all the outcomes in
the event X ∩ Y.
(d) Let Z be the event that the 15-inch screen is chosen. List all the outcomes in Z.
(e) List all the outcomes in the event X ∩ Y ∩ Z.
2). A certain city has 2 daily newspapers, the Deccan Herald and The Hindu. A survey of 100
residents of the city was conducted to determine the readership of the two newspapers. It was
found that 80 took the Deccan Herald, 65 took the The Hindu, and 15 took neither paper.
Assuming that the survey reflects the actual readership of the city, what is the probability that
a resident selected at random: (a) Reads at least one of two papers? (b) Reads both papers? (2
points)
3) A student must choose exactly two of three electives: Art, Programming, or
Communications. The student chooses Art with probability 5/8, Programming with
probability 5/8 and Art and Programming together with probability 1/4. What is the
probability that the student chooses Communications? (1 point)
4) Let U = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7}, A = {l,2,3,4}, B = {3,4,5}, C = {2,3,4,5,6}. Find the following:
(3 points)
a. A∪B
b. A∩B
c. Ac
d. (A∪B)∩C
e. (A∩B)∪C
f. Ac∪B∪C
5) Which of the following events are mutually exclusive (disjoint) or not? Justify your answer
(1.5 points)
a. Rolling an even number and a prime number in rolling a die.
b. Selecting a consonant and a vowel from the alphabet.
c. Selecting a prime number and a factor of 12 from the numbers 1 to 12.
II. Properties of Probability (10 Points)
1) Given P(A) = 0.6, P(B) = 0.5, and P(A∩B) = 0.2, (2 points)
a. Find P(A∩Bc)
b. Find P(B∩Ac)
2) An MP3 player is set to play songs at random from the fifteen songs it contains in
memory. Any song can be played at any time, even if it is repeated. There are 5 songs by
Band A, 3 songs by Band B, 2 songs by Band C and 5 by Band D. If the player has just
played two songs in a row by Band D, (2 points)
a. What is the probability that the next song will also be by Band D?
b. What is the probability that the next two songs will be by Band B?
3) An economist can purchase two types of data analytic software - R and STATA. The
probability that an economist can purchase R is 0.15 while the probability of purchasing
STATA is 0.65. The probability of purchasing either R or STATA is 0.70. (1 Point)
(a) Find the probability that an economist does not purchase either STATA or R
(b) Find the probability that an economist purchases both R and STATA.
4) A regular deck of cards has 52 cards. If the card you had drawn before the next draw is
replaced, what is the probability of drawing three aces in a row? (1 Point)
5) Table 2 shows a random sample of 100 hikers and the areas of hiking they prefer.
Sex The coastline Near lakes and On Mountain Total
streams Peaks
Female 18 16 45
Male 14 55
Total 41
a. Complete rest of the entries in the table. (2 points)
b. Are the events "being female" and "preferring the coastline" independent events? (1
point)
c. Find the probability that a person is male given that the person prefers hiking near
lakes and streams (1 point)
Section III - Conditional Probability (15 points)
1) Many psychologists believe that birth order and personality are related. To study this
hypothesis, 400 elementary school children were randomly selected and then given a
test to measure confidence. On the results of this test each of the students was
classified as being either confident or not confident. The numbers falling into each of
the possible categories are:
Firstborn Not Firstborn
Confident 62 60
Not Confident 105 173
That is, for instance, out of 167 students who were firstborn children, a total of 62
were rated as being confident. Suppose that a student is randomly chosen from this
group. (1+1+1+1+2=6 Points)
(a) What is the probability that the student is a firstborn?
(b) What is the probability that the student is rated confident?
(c) What is the conditional probability that the student is rated confident given that the
student is a firstborn?
(d) What is the conditional probability that the student is rated confident given that the
student is not a firstborn?
(e) Let A be the event that a randomly selected student is confident and B be the event
that a randomly selected student is first born. Are A and B disjoint events? Are they
independent events? Justify your answer.
2) The music club at APU has 240 students, of whom 80 play the guitar, 112 students
play drums and 52 can play both guitar and drums. If a student is randomly chosen,
find the conditional probability that she or he
(a) plays the guitar given that he or she also plays drums (1 Point)
(b) Plays drums given that she or he also plays guitar. (1 Point)
3) In a particular college class, 60% of the students are female. Fifty percent of all
students in the class have long hair. Forty-five percent of the students are female and
have long hair. Of the female students, 75% have long hair. Let F be the event that a
student is female. Let L be the event that a student has long hair. One student is
picked randomly. Are the events of being female and having long hair independent?
Justify your answer. (2 Points)
4) Let event C = taking an English class. Let event D = taking a speech class.
Suppose P(C ) = 0.75, P(D) = 0.3, P(C|D) = 0.75 and P(C and D) = 0.225
Justify your answers to the following questions? (3 Points)
a) Are C and D independent?
b) Are C and D mutually exclusive?
c) What is P(D|C)
5) A family has 2 children. Given that one of the children is a boy, what is the
probability that the other child is also a boy (2 Points)
Section IV - Bayes’theorem (7.5+7.5 = 15 points)
1) Suppose the test for HIV is 95% accurate in both the directions i.e. if you are HIV
positive, it will show you are positive 95% of the time. Or, if you are HIV negative, it
will show you are negative 95% of the time. Further, suppose that 0.3% of the
population is HIV positive. If someone tests positive, what is the probability they
actually are HIV positive?
2) Stores A, B and C have 100, 200 and 300 employees respectively. Further, total
number of women employees in store A is 50, store B is 120 and store C is 210.
Resignations are equally likely among all employees, regardless of gender. One
employee resigns and this is a woman. What is the probability that she works in store
A?
