A company has recently started building a new plant. Letting A represent the number of months to complete the project, the probability distribution of A is:

$$ P(A)=\frac{A}{22}, A = 4,5,6,7. $$

i) Show that P(A) is a probability function.
ii) What is the probability that the plant will be completed in at most 6 months?
iii) What is the probability it will be completed in at least 5 and not more than 6 months?

Solution

Given that the probability distribution of A is
$$ P(A)=\frac{A}{22}, A = 4,5,6,7. $$

i) $P(A=4) = \frac{4}{22}$, $P(A=5)=\frac{5}{22}$, $P(A=5)=\frac{6}{22}$ and $P(A=7)=\frac{7}{22}$.

All $P(A)> 0$ for $A=4,5,6,7$ and the total probability is

$$ \begin{aligned} & \sum_{A=4}^{7} P(A)\\ &=\frac{4}{22}+\frac{5}{22}+\frac{6}{22}+\frac{7}{22}\\ &=\frac{22}{22}\\ &=1. \end{aligned} $$
Thus $P(A)$ is a probability function.

ii) The probability that the plant will be completed in at most 6 months is

$$ \begin{aligned} P(A<=6) & = P(A=4)+P(A=5)+P(A=6)\\ &= \frac{4}{22}+\frac{5}{22}+\frac{6}{22}\\ &=\frac{15}{22}\\ &=0.6818182 \end{aligned} $$

iii) The probability that it will be completed in at least 5 and not more than 6 months is

$$ \begin{aligned} P(A>=5 \text{ and } A =6) & = P(A=5)+P(A=6)\\ &= \frac{5}{22}+\frac{6}{22}\\ &=\frac{11}{22}\\ &=0.5 \end{aligned} $$

Further Reading