The Hoylake Rescue Squad receives an emergency call every 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 hours, according to the following probability distribution:
Time Between emergency Probability
Calls (hours)
1 ................0.05
2 ................0.10
3 ................0.30
4 ................0.30
5 ................0.20
6 ................0.05
1.00
The squad is on duty 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
a. Simulate the emergency calls for three days (note that this will require a “running,” or cumulative, hourly clock) using the random number table.
b. Compute the average time between calls and compare this value with the expected value of the time between calls from the probabilistic distribution. Why are the results different?
c. How many calls were made during the three-day period?
Can you logically assume that this is an average number of calls per three-day period? If not, how could you simulate to determine such an average?