Huge Multi Part Prob + Stats question from past paper

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a statistics problem involving two secretaries, A and B, who produce typed pages with misprints following a Poisson distribution. The problem includes multiple parts that require calculating probabilities related to misprints, the distribution of error-free pages, and the total number of misprints in a book typed by secretary A.

Discussion Character

  • Mixed

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the application of the Poisson distribution to find probabilities related to misprints, including conditional probabilities and overall proportions of error-free pages.
  • There is exploration of the distribution of the number of pages without misprints, with some participants suggesting the use of a normal approximation for a binomial distribution.
  • Questions arise regarding the calculation of probabilities for specific ranges of pages and the identification of distributions for total misprints.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively engaging with the problem, attempting to clarify their understanding of the distributions involved and how to apply them. Some guidance has been offered regarding the use of normal approximations and the identification of distributions, but there remains uncertainty about specific calculations and methods.

Contextual Notes

Participants express urgency due to an upcoming exam, indicating a time constraint that may affect their ability to fully explore the problem. There is also mention of imposed homework rules regarding the use of computational tools during exams.

hb2325
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A university department has 2 secretaries (labelled A and B) who do all the word processing
required by the department. The number of misprints on a randomly sampled
page typed by secretary i (i=A,B) has a Poisson distribution with Mean Ui independent
of the number of misprints on any other page, where Mean Ua = 0.3 and Mean Ub = 1.2.


Assume that each page is typed entirely by a single secretary. Of the typing required
by the department, 75% is done by secretary A and 25% by secretary B.


(a) Find the probability that a randomly sampled page typed by secretary B contains
more than 1 misprint. [2 marks]


(b) Calculate the overall proportion of pages produced by the department that contain
no misprints. [3 marks]


(c) Suppose that a randomly sampled page produced by the department is found to
contain 2 misprints. Given this information, calculate the probability that this
page was typed by secretary A, Hence which secretary is most likely to have typed
the page concerned? [5 marks]


A book typed entirely by secretary A consists of 200 pages.
(i) Let X be the number of pages in the book that contain no misprints. Name
the (exact) distribution of X. Find approximately the probability that at
least 150 pages in the book are without misprints. [5 marks]


(ii) Find approximately the probability that the book contains at most 50 misprints
in total.


Attempt At soultions:

a) Using P(x=K) = (e^-u* u^k)/k! , I get the probability for X=0, X=1 add them and subtract from 1?

b) 0.25* Prob X=0 from part 1 + same thing for Sec A * 0. 75

c) Conditional prob. I am happy with this one.

d) i) I think this is a normal distribution.

Now if its a normal distribution, mean number of errors per page = 0.3 so number of errors in 200 page will be 60.

But how do I find The prob of 150+151...200 :S I am very confused and would love some help as my exam is on wednesday!

Thanks!
 
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hb2325 said:
A university department has 2 secretaries (labelled A and B) who do all the word processing
required by the department. The number of misprints on a randomly sampled
page typed by secretary i (i=A,B) has a Poisson distribution with Mean Ui independent
of the number of misprints on any other page, where Mean Ua = 0.3 and Mean Ub = 1.2.


Assume that each page is typed entirely by a single secretary. Of the typing required
by the department, 75% is done by secretary A and 25% by secretary B.


(a) Find the probability that a randomly sampled page typed by secretary B contains
more than 1 misprint. [2 marks]


(b) Calculate the overall proportion of pages produced by the department that contain
no misprints. [3 marks]


(c) Suppose that a randomly sampled page produced by the department is found to
contain 2 misprints. Given this information, calculate the probability that this
page was typed by secretary A, Hence which secretary is most likely to have typed
the page concerned? [5 marks]


A book typed entirely by secretary A consists of 200 pages.
(i) Let X be the number of pages in the book that contain no misprints. Name
the (exact) distribution of X. Find approximately the probability that at
least 150 pages in the book are without misprints. [5 marks]


(ii) Find approximately the probability that the book contains at most 50 misprints
in total.


Attempt At soultions:

a) Using P(x=K) = (e^-u* u^k)/k! , I get the probability for X=0, X=1 add them and subtract from 1?

b) 0.25* Prob X=0 from part 1 + same thing for Sec A * 0. 75

c) Conditional prob. I am happy with this one.

d) i) I think this is a normal distribution.

Now if its a normal distribution, mean number of errors per page = 0.3 so number of errors in 200 page will be 60.

But how do I find The prob of 150+151...200 :S I am very confused and would love some help as my exam is on wednesday!

Thanks!

For (d): let p = probability that a page has no misprints (same p for all pages). The number of non-misprint pages in an n-page book is the number of "successes" in n independent trials with success probability p per trial. Can you name the corresponding distribution? In (d) you need to compute p (how?), and n = 200, so using the exact distribution might be difficult (especially on an exam without computer access), so using a good approximation would be the way to go. So much for part (i). For part (ii), can you identify the distribution of the total number of misprints in a 200-page book? The total number of misprints equals the number on page 1 plus the number on page 2 plus ... plus the number on page 200, and these numbers are all independent random variables with the same distribution Poisson(0.3). Again, the exact distribution might be hard to use in an exam situation, so a sensible approximation should be applied.

RGV
 
Wait would it be a bernoulli distribution?
 
Ok so I use the probability of X=0 for sec A that I found in part a of the question, that's p of a success, and I use the normal approximation of a bernoulli distribution?

But I am unsure of how to use the normal dist. to find these values? Please help me my exam is tomorrow :(
 
hb2325 said:
Ok so I use the probability of X=0 for sec A that I found in part a of the question, that's p of a success, and I use the normal approximation of a bernoulli distribution?

But I am unsure of how to use the normal dist. to find these values? Please help me my exam is tomorrow :(

If you are talking about question (i), then yes, it would be a binomial distribution. So, what are the mean and variance of the number of error-free pages? (There are standard formulas---just use them.) Of course, you would use a normal approximation with exactly the same mean and variance. Then just use the standard methods that you have learned (or were supposed to have learned) how to apply.

RGV
 

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