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Soledad and Tania are both high school students. The number of texts Soledad sends daily, S, is approximately Normally distributed with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 6 texts. The number of texts Tania sends daily, T, is approximately Normally distributed with a mean of 108 and a standard deviation of 8. 1 texts. Assume that S and T are independent random variables. Let D = S – T.

What is the probability that Soledad sends more texts on a randomly selected day?


0. 104

0. 214

0. 786

0. 896

User Skjagini
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8.3k points

1 Answer

3 votes

Answer:

(b) 0.214

Explanation:

Given S is normally distributed with µ=100 and σ=6, and T is normally distributed with µ=108 and σ=8, you want the probability that D = S-T is greater than 0. S and T are independent.

Difference

The distribution of the difference of the two normal random variables is normal with a mean equal to the difference of their means. The variance of the difference distribution will be the sum of the variances of the contributing distributions.

µ(D) = µ(S) -µ(T) = 100 -108 = -8

σ²(D) = σ²(S) +σ²(T) = 6² +8² = 100 ⇒ σ(D) = √100 = 10

Probability

The probability that the difference (d) will be greater than 0 can be found using a suitable probability calculator (see attached).

P(d > 0) ≈ 0.212

This is equivalent to the probability P(d > Z) for a standard normal distribution, where ...

Z = (d -µ)/σ = (0 -(-8))/10 = 0.8

The probability that Soledad sends more texts is about 0.214, choice B.

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Additional comment

We're not quite sure where the discrepancy between our value and the offered choice(s) comes from. It doesn't seem to be related to the empirical rule, which would apply for integer Z values. P(d > Z) = 0.214 will be true for Z ≈ 0.79262, not 0.8.

So, we have selected the closest choice.

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Soledad and Tania are both high school students. The number of texts Soledad sends-example-1
User Mostafa Farghaly
by
7.7k points