UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE MT 233

ODEs and Statistics for Engineering - STATISTICS

Time : 1 hours

TEST 3

Q1. Consider the following sample with 20 observations xi :

1 1 5 7 9 11 11 14 14 19
20 21 23 28 28 31 39 41 43 47
20
X 20
X
xi = 413 and x2i = 12311.
i=1 i=1

(a) Calculate the mean of this sample. [1]

(b) Calculate the standard deviation of this sample. [2]
(c) Calculate the median of this sample. [1]
(d) Calculate the interquartile range of this sample. [2]

Q2. A sample of data has a distribution that has a single mode and is strongly positively
skewed. An electrical engineer computes three measures of location for these data: the
mean, the median and the mode.

(a) State the largest of these three location measures. [1]

(b) Suggest, with a reason, which would be the best measure of location. [2]

Q3. Suppose X and Y are random variables with means µX and µY respectively. Prove
the following

(a) Cov(X, Y ) =E(X, Y ) − µX µY . [4]

(b) the quantity E[(X − a)2 ] is a minimum when a = µX = E(X). [4]

page 1 of 2
 MT 233

Q4. The time taken by a junior engineer to perform a task, t hours, has the probability
density function


2
10ct ,
 0≤t<6
f (x, y) = 9c(1 − t), 0.6 ≤ t ≤ 1.0

0 otherwise,


where c is a constant.

(a) Determine the value of the constant c. [3]

(b) Determine the expected time. [5]
(c) Determine the probability that the time will be between 24 and 48 minuites. [4]

Q5. A company is interested on hiring a new engineer. Several candidates were interviewed
and the choice was narrowed to two possibilities. The final choice was based on the
minimum period a candidate takes to mount a given circuit. Six circuit diagrams were
randomly selected and each candidate was asked to mount each one, and the time
(minutes) he/she spent was recorded. The results are presented in the Table below.

Circuit diagram number 1 2 3 4 5 6

Candidate 1 62 60 65 58 59 64
Candidate 2 59 60 61 57 55 60

Use a 90% confidence interval to determine if there is sufficient evidence to deduce that
the level of competence for the two candidates differ. [10]

Hint:
t(0.05,1) = 6.31, t(0.05,5) = 2.02, t(0.05,11) = 1.80.

END OF QUESTION PAPER

page 2 of 2