The Department Chair Is Out of Town at a Conference

Multiple Choice

The department chair is out of town at a conference and you, as the assistant department chair, find yourself besieged by dozens of students needing permission to get into a very popular (but closed) class. Student arrivals are governed by the Poisson distribution with a mean of 5 minutes. Telling the students that they can't get into the closed class takes about 3 minutes, and this average is exponentially distributed. About how many students are waiting outside your office door and in your office?

A) 0.5
B) 1.0
C) 1.5
D) 2.0