CK-12 Probability and Statistics - Advanced

4.6. The Geometric Probability Distribution http://www.ck12.org

Review Questions

1. A prison reports that the number of escape attempts per month has a Poisson distribution with a mean value
   of 1.5.
   a. Calculate the probability that exactly three escapes will be attempted during the next month.
   b. Calculate the probability that exactly one escape will be attempted during the next month.


2. If the mean number of patients entering an emergency room at a hospital is 2.5. If the number of available
   beds today is 4 beds for new patients, what is the probability that the hospital will not have enough beds to
   accommodate its new patients?


3. An oil company had determined that the probability of finding oil at a particular drilling operation is 20%.
   What is the probability that it would drill four dry wells before finding oil at the fifth one? (Hint: This is an
   example of a geometric random variable.)

Review Answers

1. 
   
   
   
   1. 0.1255;
   
   
   2. 
      
      
      
      0. 3347
      
      
      
      
   
   
   
   


2. 
   
   
   
   0. 1088
   
   
   
   


3. 8.19%