Created by T.

Madas

POISSON
DISTRIBUTION

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

INTRODUCTORY
CALCULATIONS

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 1
Accidents occur on a certain stretch of motorway at the rate of three per month.

Find the probability that on a given month there will be …

a) … no accidents.

b) … one accident.

c) … two accidents.

d) … three accidents.

e) … four accidents.

0.0498 , 0.1494 , 0.2240 , 0.2240 , 0.1680

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 2
Cretan Airlines services which arrive late to Athens Airport on a typical week can be
modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean of 4.5 .

a) Determine the probability that on a given week there will be …

i. … four late arrivals.

ii. … less than four late arrivals.

iii. … at least seven late arrivals.

b) Determine the probability that on a given two week period there will be
between eight and thirteen (inclusive) late arrivals.

0.1898 , 0.3423 , 0.1689 , 0.6022

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 3
Sheep are randomly scattered in a field which is divided into equal size squares.

There are three sheep on average on each square.

Determine the probability that on a given square there will be …

a) … no more than five sheep.

b) … more than two but no more than seven sheep.

0.9161 , 0.5649

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 4
Post boxes in London are randomly spaced out and on average five post boxes are
found per square mile.

a) Determine the probability that on a certain square mile there will be …

i. … exactly seven post boxes.

ii. … less than eight but no less than four post boxes.

The number of post boxes in a smaller area of 1

4 of a square mile, are counted.

b) Find the probability that this smaller area will contain post boxes.

0.1044 , 0.6016 , 0.7135

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

EXAM
QUESTIONS

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 1 (**)
The water from a lake is tested and is found to contain on average three bacteria per
litre of water. A sample of 250 ml is collected from the lake.

a) Determine the probability that the 250 ml water sample will contain …

i. … exactly two bacteria.

ii. … at least two bacteria.

A larger sample of two litres of water is collected from the lake.

b) Find the probability that this larger sample will contain less than ten but no less
than six bacteria.

FS1-P , 0.1329 , 0.1734 , 0.4704

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 2 (***)
A discrete random variable X has Poisson distribution with mean λ .

Given that P ( X = 8 ) = P ( X = 9 ) , determine the value of P ( 4 < X ≤ 10 ) .

FS1-Q , 0.6510

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 3 (***+)
A shop sells a particular make of smart phone. It is assumed that the daily sales of this
type of phone is a Poisson variable with mean 3 .

a) Find the probability, giving the answers in terms of e , that on a particular day
the shop sells …

i. … exactly 3 smart phones.

ii. … at least 4 smart phones.

It is further given that in a particular day at least 4 smart phones were sold.

b) Show that the probability that exactly 7 smart phones were actually sold that
day is given by

243
,
(
k e3 − 13 )
where k is an integer to be found.

FS1-R , 9 e−3 ≈ 0.2240 , 1 − 13e −3 ≈ 0.3528 , k = 560

2

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 4 (***+)
The number of houses sold by an estate agent follows a Poisson distribution, with a
mean of 2.5 houses per week.

a) Find the probability that in the next four weeks the estate agent sells …

i. … exactly 4 houses

ii. … more than 6 houses.

The estate agent monitors the house sales in periods of 4 weeks.

b) Find the probability that in the next twelve of those four week periods there are
exactly 7 four week periods in which more than 6 houses are sold.

FS1-U , 0.0189 , 0.8699 , 0.0111

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 5 (***+)
The number of errors per page typed by Lena is assumed to follow a Poisson
distribution with a mean of 0.45 .

a) State two conditions, for a Poisson distribution to be a suitable model for the
number of errors per page, typed by Lena.

A page typed by Lena is picked at random.

b) Calculate the probability that this page will contain exactly 2 errors.

c) Calculate the probability that this page will contain at least 2 errors.

Another 20 pages typed by Lena are picked at random.

d) Determine the least integer k such that the probability of having k or more
typing errors, in these 20 pages typed by Lena, is less than 1% .

Finally, 320 pages typed by Lena are picked at random.

e) Use a distributional approximation to find the probability of having less than

125 typing errors, in these 320 pages typed by Lena.

X , ≈ 0.0646 , ≈ 0.0754 , k = 18 , ≈ 0.052

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 6 (***+)
In a survey, along a certain coastline, plastic objects were found at a constant average
rate of 250 per km .

a) Determine the probability that a 10 m length of this coastline will contain more
than 4 plastic objects.

A similar survey, along the same coastline, drinks cans were found at a constant
average rate of 160 per km .

b) Calculate the probability that a 30 m length of this coastline will contain

exactly 5 drinks cans.

The local authority believes that in this coastline the average rate of drinks cans is
higher than 160 per km .

c) Test, at the 1% level of significance, the local authority’s belief.

Let T represent the total number of plastic objects and drinks cans per 100 m of the
above mentioned coastline.

d) Find the approximate value of P (T > 50 ) .

X , 0.1088 , 0.1747 , not significant, 1.73% > 1% , 0.0690

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 7 (***+)
A bakery sells chocolate birthday cakes through the internet.

Orders for chocolate cakes are random and arrive at the constant rate of 4.5 per day.

At the start of any given day, the bakery produces 6 chocolate birthday cakes and
produces no more until the day after.

a) Find the probability that by the middle of a working day the bakery would have
sold half the chocolate birthday cakes it produced for that day.

b) Calculate the probability that by the end of the working day the bakery would
have sold all the chocolate birthday cakes it produced for the day.

c) Find the probability that if by the end of the day more than half the chocolate
birthday cakes are sold, then exactly 4 were actually sold.

FS1-K , 0.1382 , 0.9093 , 5

16

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 8 (***+)
The number of typing errors per page in the first edition of a textbook follows a
Poisson distribution with mean 0.7 .

a) Determine the probability that a randomly chosen page in the first edition of
this textbook contains exactly 2 typing errors.

The textbook is proof-read page by page, starting with page one.

b) Calculate the probability that the fourth page of the textbook is the first page to
contain typing errors.

c) If n pages are examined find the smallest value of n , so that the probability of
these n pages not containing errors is less than 0.0001 .

FS1-X , ≈ 0.1217 , ≈ 0.0642 , n = 14

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 9 (****)
The daily number of breakdowns of taxis of a certain taxi firm can be modelled by a
Poisson distribution with mean 1.5 .

a) Find the probability that on a given day there will be exactly 2 breakdowns.

b) Determine the probability that in a seven day week there will be exactly 3 days
without a breakdown.

FS1-K , 0.2510 , 0.1416

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 10 (****)
A large office block is illuminated by light tubes which when they fail they are
replaced by the block's caretaker.

The mean number of tubes that fail on a particular weekday, Monday to Friday, is 1.

The mean number of tubes that fail on a random two day weekend, is 0.5 .

a) Find the probability that …

i. … exactly 4 light tubes fail on a particular Wednesday.

ii. … more than 2 light tubes fail on a particular weekend.

iii. … less than 4 light tubes fail on a particular complete, 7 day week.

The caretaker looks at his stock one Monday morning.

He wants to have the probability of running out of light tubes before the next Monday
morning, less than 1 % .

b) Calculate the smallest number of tubes he must have in stock.

FS1-O , ≈ 0.0153 , ≈ 0.0144 , ≈ 0.2017 , 12

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 11 (****)
A car showroom salesman receives on average one call every 15 minutes.

a) Assuming a Poisson model, determine the probability that the salesman will
receive exactly 6 calls between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.

One morning the salesman received 10 calls between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

b) Assuming the same Poisson model, determine the probability that the salesman
received exactly 6 calls between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on that morning.

FS1-Y , 0.1042 , 105 ≈ 0.2051

512

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 12 (****)
A village post office opens on Wednesdays at 10.00 .

After that time, customers arrive at this post office at the constant rate of 4 customers
every ten minutes.

a) Find the probability that more than 3 but less than 8 customers will arrive at
this post office between 10.00 and 10.10 .

b) Find the probability that at least 10 customers will arrive at this post office
between 10.00 and 10.20 .

The time period between 10.00 and 10.20 is split into four 5 minute intervals.

c) Determine the probability that in only two of these four 5 minute intervals,
there will be customers arriving at this post office.

FS1-L , 0.5154 , 0.2834 , 0.082

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 13 (****)
During rush hour commuters arrive at a busy train station at the steady rate of 7
commuters every 30 seconds.

a) Calculate the probability that in a random 30 second interval there will be

more than 5 but no more than 11 commuters arriving at this station.

The next 5 minutes are monitored.

b) Show that the probability that more than 81 commuters will arrive at this
station is approximately 0.085 .

The next 20 minutes are divided into 4 intervals of 5 minutes.

c) Determine the probability that more than 81 commuters will arrive at this
station in 2 of these intervals of 5 minutes.

FS1-W , 0.6460 , 0.036

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 14 (****)
Since his retirement, Fred goes fishing Monday to Friday, for 3 hours on each of these
5 days. The number of fish he catches every hour follows a Poisson distribution with
mean 2.5 .

a) Find the probability that Fred catches more than 9 fish on exactly 2 of the
days, in a given 5 day fishing week.

Fred buys a new type of bait and decides to test whether there is any difference to the
rate at which he catches fish. He tries his new bait by going fishing on a Sunday and
ends up catching 14 fish in 4 hours.

b) Carry out a significance test, at the 5% level, stating your hypotheses clearly.

FS1-N , 0.234 , not significant evidence, 4.87% > 2.5%

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 15 (****)
The number of disconnections experienced by a company server follows a Poisson
distribution with a rate of one disconnection every four hours.

a) Find the smallest value of n , such that the probability that there is at least n
disconnections in a 4 hour period is less than 0.01 .

b) Determine the smallest value of hours h , such that the probability that there is
no disconnections in h hours is less than 0.02 .

c) Find the probability that in 3 consecutive 4 hour periods, there will be only
one 4 hour period without any disconnections.

d) Calculate the probability that the number of disconnections in 3 consecutive 4

hour periods, will be equal to the expected number of disconnections in 3
consecutive 4 hour periods .

On a particular day there were 4 disconnections in a period of 8 hours.

e) Calculate the probability that there were more disconnections in the first 4
hours than in the last 4 hours.

FS1-J , n = 4 , h = 16 , ≈ 0.4410 , ≈ 0.2240 , 11

32

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 16 (****)
The number of customers X entering a shop follows a Poisson distribution with mean
0.2t , where t represents a time interval of t minutes.

a) Find the probability that exactly 4 customers enter this shop between 2 p.m.
and 2.20 p.m.

b) If P ( X = 4 ) ≈ 0.14142 , use a suitable approach to find the value of t .

c) Use a binomial approximation with n = 80 , to estimate the probability that

between 2.20 p.m. and 2.35 p.m, exactly 3 customers enter this shop.

d) Use a direct Poisson calculation to estimate the percentage error of the answer
of part (c).

A new discrete random variable Y is defined as

Y = aX + b ,

where a and b are positive constants.

e) If the mean of X is 4 and the mean and variance of Y are both 36 , explain
with suitable calculations why Y cannot be Poisson distributed.

FS1-G , ≈ 0.1954 , t = 13 , ≈ 0.2284 , ≈ 1.96%

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 17 (****)
The discrete random variable X follows a Poisson distribution with mean 2 , and
another discrete random variable Y also follows a Poisson distribution with mean 3 .

It is further given that X and Y are independent from one another.

a) Find the value of Var ( XY ) .

b) Determine P ( XY = 4 )

FS1-X , Var ( XY ) = 36 , P ( XY = 4 ) ≈ 0.1196

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 18 (****)
The discrete random variables X and Y are independent from one another and are
defined as

X ~ B (16,0.25) and Y ~ Po ( 2 ) .

a) Find the value of Var ( XY ) .

b) Determine P ( XY = 3)

FS1-U , Var ( XY ) = 50 , P ( XY = 3) ≈ 0.0659

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 19 (****+)
It is known that during the first hour of trading, customers arrive at a garden centre at
the rate of 3 customers every 10 minutes.

a) State two conditions, so that a Poisson distribution could be used to model the
number of arrivals in the garden centre.

b) State one reason as to why the Poisson model might not be suitable.

Using a suitable Poisson model, and ignoring the answer to part (b), determine the
probability that...

c) … exactly 4 customers arrive in the first 10 minutes of trading.

d) … exactly 8 customers arrive in the first 20 minutes of trading.

e) … exactly 4 customers arrive in the first 10 minutes of trading and a further 4

customers arrive in the next 10 minutes.

f) … the first customer will arrive 7 minutes after opening.

The first hour after opening is subdivided into 6 equal 10 minute intervals.

Calculate the probability that...

g) … exactly 4 customers arrive in none of these 10 minute intervals.

h) … there will be a single 10 minute interval, where no customers arrive to the

garden centre.

The garden centre claims that 98% of its seeds will germinate. It was found that in a
random sample of 125 seeds, 117 seeds germinated.

i) Use a suitable approximation, to test at the 1% level of significance, whether

the garden centre overstates thr germination proportion of its seeds. You must
state your hypotheses clearly in this part.

FS1-M , 0.1680 , 0.1033 , 0.0282 , 0.1225 , 0.3316 , 0.2314 ,

significant evidence, 0.42% < 1%

[solution overleaf]

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 20 (****+)
The number of customer complaints received by a company is thought to follow a
Poisson distribution with a mean of 1.8 complaints per day.

In a randomly chosen 5 day week, the probability that there will be at least n
customer complaints is 12.42% .

a) Determine the value of n .

b) Use a distributional approximation to find the probability that in a period of 20

working days there fewer than 30 customer complaints.

A week of 5 working days is called a “bad week” if at least n customer complaints

are received, where n is the value found in part (a).

c) Use a distributional approximation to find the probability that in 40 randomly

chosen weeks more than 2 are “bad”.

n = 13 , ≈ 0.140 , ≈ 0.889

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 21 (****+)
The number of car caught speeding per day, by a fixed police camera, is thought to
follow a Poisson distribution with mean 1.2 .

a) Find the probability that on a given 7 day week exactly 8 cars will be caught
by this police camera.

A car has just been caught by the police camera.

b) Determine the probability that the period that elapses before another car gets
caught is less than 48 hours.

In fact 5 cars were caught in the next 48 hours.

c) Calculate the probability that 2 cars were caught in the first 24 hours and 3
cars were caught in the next 24 hours.

FS1-V , 0.1382 , 0.9093 , 5

16

Created by T. Madas
Created by T. Madas

Question 22 (*****)
The number of supernovae observed in a certain part of the sky in a 10 period can be
modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean 1.

The probability that exactly 6 supernovae are observed in this part of the sky in a
period of x years is 0.1128 , correct to 4 decimal places.

Determine the possible values of x , correct to the nearest integer.

FS1-S , x = 42, 83

Created by T. Madas