The lengths of new pencils are normally distributed with mean 11 cm and standard deviation 0.095 cm.
Find the probability that a pencil chosen at random has a length greater than 10.9 cm. Find the probability that, in a random sample of 6 pencils, at least two have lengths less than 10.9 cm.
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Solution
(i) To find the probability that a pencil has a length greater than 10.9 cm, we standardize the normal distribution:
\(P(x > 10.9) = P\left(z > \frac{10.9 - 11}{0.095}\right)\)
\(= P(z > -1.0526)\)
Using the standard normal distribution table, \(P(z > -1.0526) = 0.8538\), which rounds to 0.854.
(ii) To find the probability that at least two pencils in a sample of 6 have lengths less than 10.9 cm, we first find the probability of a single pencil being less than 10.9 cm:
\(P(x < 10.9) = 1 - P(x > 10.9) = 1 - 0.8538 = 0.1462\)
We use the binomial distribution for 6 trials with probability \(p = 0.1462\):
\(P(\text{at least 2} < 10.9) = 1 - P(0, 1)\)
\(= 1 - \left(0.8538^6 + 6 \cdot 0.1462 \cdot 0.8538^5\right)\)
\(= 1 - (0.8538^6 + 6 \cdot 0.1462 \cdot 0.8538^5)\)
\(= 0.215\)
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