Geometric Distribution Worksheet
Q. 1:Ann, Bill, Chris and Dipak play a game with a fair cubical die. Starting with Ann they take turns,
in alphabetical order, to throw the die. This process is repeated as many times as necessary until
a player throws a 6. When this happens, the game stops and this player is the winner.
Find the probability that
(a) Chris wins on his first throw, [1]
(b) Dipak wins on his second throw, [3]
(c) Ann gets a third throw, [2]
(d) Bill throws the die exactly three times. [4]
Q. 2: (a) A clock is designed to chime once each hour, on the hour. The clock has
a fault so that each time it is supposed to chime there is a constant
probability of that it will not chime. It may be assumed that the clock
1
never stops and that faults occur independently. The clock is started at 5
10
minutes past midnight on a certain day. Find the probability that the first
time it does not chime is
(i) at 0600 on that day, [3]
(ii) before 0600 on that day. [3]
(b) Another clock is designed to chime twice each hour: on the hour and at 30
minutes past the hour. This clock has a fault so that each time it is
supposed to chime there is a constant probability of that it will not
1
chime. It may be assumed that the clock never stops and that faults occur
20
independently. The clock is started at 5 minutes past midnight on a certain
day.
(i) Find the probability that the first time it does not chime is at either 0030
or 0130 on that day. [2]
(ii) Use the formula for the sum to infinity of a geometric progression to find
the probability that the first time it does not chime is at 30 minutes past
some hour. [3]
Q. 3: In a factory, an inspector checks a random sample of 30 mugs from a large
batch and notes the number, X, which are defective. He then deals with the
batch as follows.
If X < 2, the batch is accepted.
If X > 2, the batch is rejected.
If X = 2, the inspector selects another random sample of only 15 mugs from
the batch. If this second sample contains 1 or more defective mugs, the
batch is rejected. Otherwise the batch is accepted.
It is given that 5% of mugs are defective.
(a) (i) Find the probability that the batch is rejected after just the first sample
checked. [3]
(ii) Show that the probability that the batch is rejected is 0.327, correct to 3
significant figures. [5]
(b) Batches are checked one after another. Find the probability that the first
batch to be rejected is either the 4th or the 5th batch that is checked. [3]
Q. 4: A game is played with a token on a board with a grid printed on it. The
token starts at the point (0, 0) and moves in steps. Each step is either 1 unit
in the positive x-direction with probability 0.8, or 1 unit in the positive y-
direction with probability 0.2. The token stops when it reaches at point with
a y-coordinate of 1. It is given that the token stops at (X, 1).
(a) (i) Find the probability that X = 10. [2]
(ii) Find the probability that X < 10. [3]
(b) Find the expected number of steps taken by the token. [2]
(c) Hence, write down the value of E(X). [1]
Q. 5: Each day Harry makes repeated attempts to light his gas fire. If the fire
lights he makes no more attempts. On each attempt, the probability that the
fire will light is 0.3 independent of all other attempts. Find the probability
that
(a) the fire lights on the 5th attempt, [2]
(b) Harry needs more than 1 attempt but fewer than 5 attempts to light the
fire. [3]
If the fire does not light on the 6th attempt, Harry stops and the fire remains
unlit.
(c) Find the probability that, on a particular day, the fire lights. [3]
(d) Harry’s week starts on Monday. Find the probability that, during a certain
week, the first day on which the fire lights is Wednesday. [2]
Q. 6: Henry marks repeated attempts to light his gas fire. He makes the
modelling assumption that the probability that the fire will light on any
attempt is .
1
3
Let X be the number of attempts at lighting the fire, up to and including the
successful attempt.
(a) Name the distribution of X, stating a further modelling assumption
needed. [2]
In the rest of this question, you should use the distribution needed in part
(a).
(b) Calculate
(i) P( X =4 ¿, [3]
(ii) P( X < 4 ¿ . [3]
(c) State the value of E( X ). [1]
(d) Henry has to light the fire once a day, starting on March 1st. Calculate the
probability that the first day on which fewer than 4 attempts are needed to
light the fire is March 3rd. [3]
Q. 7: (a) A random variable X has the distribution Geo ( 15 ). Find
(i) E ( X ) , [1]
(ii) P( X =4 ¿, [2]
(iii) P( X > 4 ¿ . [2]
(b) A random variable Y has the distribution Geo(p), and q = 1- p.
(i) Show that P(Y is odd)¿ p+q 2 p+q 4 p+… [1]
(ii) Use the formula for sum to infinity of a geometric progression to show
that
[4]
1
P ( Y is odd ) = .
1+q
Q. 8: Once each year, Paula enters a lottery for a place in an annual marathon.
Each time she enters the lottery, the probability of her obtaining a place is
0.3. Find the probability that
(a) the first time she obtains a place is on her 4th attempt, [3]
(b) she does not obtain a place on any of her 6 attempts, [2]
(c) she needs fewer than 10 attempts to obtain a place, [3]
(d) she obtains a place exactly twice in her first 5 attempts. [3]
Q. 9: 30% of people own a Talk-2 phone. People are selected at random, one at a
time, and asked whether they own a Talk-2 phone. The number of people
questioned, up to and including the first person who owns a Talk-2 phone, is
denoted by X. Find
(a) P( X =4 ¿, [3]
(b) P( X > 4 ¿ , [2]
(c) P( X < 6 ) . [3]
Q. 10: The proportion of people who watch West Street on television is 30%. A
market researcher interviews people at random in order to contact viewers
of West Street. Each day she has to contact a certain number of West
Street.
(a) Near the end of one day she finds that she needs to contact just one
more viewer of West Street. Find the probability that the number of
further interviews required is
(i) 4, [3]
(ii) less than 4. [3]
(b) Near the end of another day she finds that she needs to contact just two
more viewers of West Street. Find the probability that the number of
further interviews required is
(i) 5, [4]
(ii) more than 5. [2]
