Statistic : Normal Distribution

1 DH/II/10
A confectionary produces durian and mango cakes with individual weights X g and Y g, distributed
normally with means µx = 800 and µy = 600, and variances σx2 = 250 and σy2 = 200 respectively.
(i) Ms Marian ordered one durian cake and one mango cake. Write down the probability
that the durian cake weighs more than 800 g and the mango cake weighs less than
600 g.
(ii) Find the probability that three randomly chosen durian cakes weigh more than four
randomly chosen mango cakes by more than 50 g.
(iii) State the condition you have used in your calculations.
Ans : (i)0.25 (ii) 0.102

2 ACJC/II/11
A fruit grower grows both red and green apples which have masses that are normally distributed.
The mass of a randomly chosen red apple has mean 75g and standard deviation 12.5g. The mass of a
randomly chosen green apple has mean of 55g and standard deviation 10.5g.
(i) Find the probability that the total mass of 3 randomly chosen green apples exceeds twice the
mean mass of 3 randomly chosen red apples.
(ii) A red apple is considered “underweight” if it weighs less than 70g. Red apples are packed
into bags of 10 for transportation to a supermarket. A bag is considered to have passed the
quality test if it contains less than 2 “underweight” apples. Calculate the probability that in a
randomly chosen batch of 20 bags of red apples, all the bags fail the quality test.
Ans : (i) 0.741 (ii) 0.147

3 CJC/II/9
A student reaches the bus-stop outside his house at 7:20am every morning to take a bus to school
and has to reach his school by 7:40am. Assume that the waiting time for his bus is normally
distributed with mean 8 minutes and variance 5 minutes 2 , and the journey time is normally
distributed with mean 11 minutes and variance 4 minutes 2 .

(i) Find the probability that he will take more than 20 minutes to reach school (i.e. late for school)
on a randomly chosen day.
(ii) In a month of 30 days, what is the expected number of days he will be late for school?
(iii) Find the latest time he would have to reach the bus-stop outside his house so that the probability
of him being late for school is less than 5%.
(iv) Find the probability that the average time taken to travel from the bus-stop outside his house
(including waiting for the bus) to school in 30 days is between 15 to 20 minutes.
Ans :(i) 0.369, (ii) 11 days, (iii) 7:16am (iv) 0.966

4 AJC/II/10
The lifespan of a halogen bulb is normally distributed with mean 160 hours with standard deviation
10 hours, while the lifespan of a fluorescent bulb is normally distributed with mean 240 hours and
standard deviation 12 hours. The lifespan of any bulb is independent of one another.
(i) A halogen bulb is randomly chosen. Find the greatest value of a, correct to three
significant figures, if the probability that its lifespan lies in the range of (160-a, 160+a) is
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 at most 0.4.
(ii) Find the probability that the difference between the average lifespan of two fluorescent
bulbs and twice the lifespan of a halogen bulb does not exceed 70 hours.
(iii) The halogen bulbs are packed in boxes of n bulbs, where n is large. If there are more than
10 bulbs that have lifespans of less than 150 hours, the box will be rejected. Using a
suitable approximation, find the greatest value of n so that the probability that a box will
be rejected is less than 0.2.
Ans : (i) a = 5.24 (3s. f ) (ii) 0.323 (iii) 52

5 HCI/II/11
A customer can order a regular 500 ml cup drink or a double 1000 ml cup drink from a vending
machine. To make a regular cup drink, the vending machine dispenses once, while to make a double
cup drink, the vending machine actually dispenses twice. Drinks which dispense from the vending
machine follow a normal distribution with mean µ ml and standard deviation 20 ml. The amounts
that are successively dispensed are independent.
(a) Find the set of values for µ so that at most 1% of regular cups overflow.
(b) It is later found that µ =470 . Find the probability that
(i) a regular cup will overflow,
(ii) no overflow occurs if the customer orders 2 regular size drinks,
(iii) for a double cup, no overflow occurs,
(iv) more than 20 cups overflowed if 300 cups of 500 ml are dispensed in one day,
by using a suitable approximation.
Ans : µ ≤ 453 (3 s.f.) 0.0668; 0.871; 0.983 ; 0.458

6 IJC/II/12
A child is playing with a large set of wooden and plastic cubes. The random variable W denotes the
length, in cm, of the edge of a wooden cube which is normally distributed with mean 7 and standard
deviation σ . The length, in cm, of the edge of a plastic cube is an independent normal variable with
mean 8 and standard deviation 0.1.
Given that 25P(W < 5)= P(W < 9) , find the value of σ , giving your answer correct to 3 significant
figures.

(i) The child picks two wooden cubes and one plastic cube at random and places them
on top of each other in a box with a hinged lid. Find, correct to 2 decimal places, the
smallest depth of the box for there to be a 95% probability that the lid will close
fully.

(ii) Find the probability the sum of the length of the edges of three randomly chosen
wooden cubes exceeds twice the length of the edge of one randomly chosen plastic
cube by at least 6.2 cm.

(iii) 200 plastic cubes are chosen at random. Using a suitable approximation, find the
probability that at most 10 of them are longer than 8.2 cm.
Ans : (i) Smallest depth is 24.63 (2 d.p.) (ii) 0.271 (3s.f); 0.993

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7 NYJC/II/10
The weights of boys in a certain age group are normally distributed, with mean 52 kg and standard
deviation σ kg. The weights of girls in the same age group are normally distributed, with mean µ
kg and standard deviation 5 kg. On average, 1 in 25 randomly chosen boys weighs less than 45 kg;
and 2 in 25 randomly chosen girls weigh more that 49 kg.
(i) Find the value of µ and σ correct to 3 significant figures.
(ii) Find the probability that the weight of two randomly chosen boys is more than thrice the
weight of a randomly chosen girl.
(iii) Find the probability that the mean weight of 10 girls chosen is less than 41 kg.
(iv) 50 boys are chosen randomly. Using a suitable approximation, find the probability that at least
46 boys are heavier than 46 kg.
Ans : (i) µ = 42.0 ; σ = 4.00 (ii) 0.0850 (iii) 0.264 (iv) 0.755

8 NJC/II/10
Song Car Rental has a fleet of 50 cars. These cars have to be serviced at the end of the year. The
costs of servicing a randomly chosen car at two available workshops A and B are normally
distributed with means and standard deviations as follow:

Mean Standard Deviation

Workshop A $240 $30
Workshop B $265 $10

(i) The owner of the car rental company decided that he would employ workshop A if there is a
probability of at least 0.8 that the cost of servicing a randomly chosen car by A does not
exceed $α. Find the least integer value of α.
(ii) In an anniversary promotion, workshop B gives a discount of $60 to every car serviced. Find
the probability that a randomly chosen car will cost less than $200 to be serviced by B.

The owner decided to employ workshop B to service all his cars. Using a suitable
approximation, determine the probability that more than 20 of his cars will cost less than
$200 each to service.
Ans : 266 ; 0.309 ; 0.0602

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