Original practice · fully worked
Original variant: museum sensor service tier
A museum expects the number of emergency sensor replacements in a season to follow a Poisson distribution with mean 2.4. Service tiers 1 through 5 cover at most 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 replacements, respectively, with price increasing by tier. The museum wants at least a 90 percent probability that every replacement is covered. Which is the least expensive acceptable tier?
- A
Tier 1 - B
Tier 2 - C
Tier 3 - D
Tier 4 - E
Tier 5
Answer and calculation
The Poisson(2.4) CDF is 0.7787 through three and 0.9041 through four. Tier 4 is the first to reach 90 percent, so choice D.
Setup
Setup
Let R be the seasonal replacement count and translate a tier limit into a cumulative probability.
R∼Poisson(2.4) Pr(full coverage at tier m)=Pr(R≤m) Model
Model
Search for the smallest limit whose cumulative probability is at least 0.90.
F(m)=e−2.4k=0∑mk!2.4k Compute
Compute
Check the two consecutive limits surrounding the target probability.
F(3)=0.7787229110… F(4)=0.9041314097… Answer
Answer
Tier 4 is the first tier to clear the 90 percent requirement.
Tier 4(D)