RANDOM VARIABLE

- A variable whose possible values are determined by chance.

- represented by an uppercase letter X, while its corresponding lowercase x represents
One of its values.
An example of this is the Coin Flip, where you flip the coin for either heads or tails.
The coin will either land on Heads or Tails; continuously land on either side or change sides in
random intervals per flip.

SAMPLE SPACE( X )
HHH 3
HHT 2
HTH 2
HTT 1
THH 2
THT 1
TTH 1
TTT 0

TYPES OF RANDOM VARIABLE

1. DISCRETE
- can only take FINITE (countable) number of distinct values
- represented by non-negative whole numbers

Example:
Cement bag on a truck
The amount of students in a classroom
Height, weight, age and such
 2. CONTINUOUS
- can assume an INFINITE (measurable) number of values in an interval between two
specific values.
- any number that is not a whole number is considered as Continuous.
Example:
The amount of money spent by a family in 1 month

DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

Properties
a. 0 ≤ P(x)≤1
b. ∑ P(x )=1

Example: There is a wheel with an arrow with segments of 1, 2, 3, and 4. What is the
probability of the arrow landing on each side?
1 1 1 1 4
P(1) = ¼ P(3) = ¼ + + + = ∨1
4 4 4 4 4
P(2) = ¼ P(4) = ¼ It satisfies the second property.
Example: There is a wheel with an arrow with segments divided into 8 regions with
two 1’s, three 4’s, two 3’s, one 2.
1 1 1 3
P (1) = 2/8 or ¼ P(3) = 2/8 or ¼ ∑ P( x )= + + +
4 8 4 8
2+ 1+ 2+ 3
P (2) = 1/8 P(4) = 2/8 =
8
8
= ∨1
8
x 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
P(x ) 1 1 1 1 5 1 5 1 1 1 1
36 18 12 9 36 6 36 9 12 18 36