Chapter 6

Discrete Probability Distributions

⚫ Random Variables
⚫ Mean(Expectation) of a Random
Variable
⚫ Variance and Standard Deviation of
a Random Variable
 How to use these lecture notes

⚫ Use these notes with Chapter 6 of… Douglas A. Lind,

William G. Marchal, Samuel Adam Wathen - Basic
Statistics For Business And Economics-McGraw-Hill
Education (2018). Answers to exercises are given at the end
of this book so you may try to solve exercise questions.
⚫ (See our video on Rao Hub (channel name) Rao Hub “How
to Download Books from the Genesis Library” (video title).
Probability Distributions
A listing of all the outcomes of an experiment and the
probability associated with each outcome
Discrete probability distribution
if we organize a set of possible values of a discrete
random variable in a probability distribution, the
distribution is a discrete probability distribution.
Self-Review 6-1
⚫ The possible outcomes of an experiment involving
the roll of a six-sided die are: a one-spot, a
two-spot, a three-spot, a four-spot, a five-spot, and
a six-spot.
⚫ (a) Develop a probability distribution for the
number of possible spots.
⚫ (b) Portray the probability distribution
graphically.
⚫ (c) What is the sum of the probabilities?
Some Basic Definitions
RANDOM VARIABLE: A quantity resulting from an
experiment that, by chance, can assume different
values.
Discrete Random variable: A random variable that can
assume only certain clearly separated values.
Continuous Random Variable:
can assume one of an infinitely large number of values,
within certain limitations.
Exercise Q4
Which of these variables are discrete and which are
continuous random variables?
a. The number of new accounts established by a
salesperson in a year.
b. The time between customer arrivals to a bank ATM.
c. The number of customers in Big Nick's barber shop.
d. The amount of fuel in your car's gas tank last week.
e. The number of minorities on a jury.
f. The outside temperature today.
Mean and Standard Deviation
MEAN: µ=∑[X*p(X)]
Variance=σ2= ∑[(X- µ)2*p(X)] or
∑[(Square of X)*p(X)]- Square of [∑[X*p(X)]]
Standard Error is the square root of the variance.
To revise what is the interpretation and properties of the mean, watch our
video titled “Arithmetic Mean of Ungrouped Data”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV2q26Bym_Y
To revise what is the interpretation and properties of the variance and standard deviation, watch
our video titled “Quintiles and Measures of Variation Lecture for 6th April 2020”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4CQIm-QpJQ
Example
John Ragsdale sells new cars for Pelican Ford. John usually
sells the largest number of cars on Saturday. He has the
following probability distribution for the number of cars he
expects to sell on a particular Saturday. (refer to excel Graph of an
approximately symmetric distribution)

Number of Cars Sold X Probability P(x)

0 .1
1 .2
2 .3
3 .3
4 .1
Total 1
Example of Mean and Variance
⚫ 1. What type of distribution is this?
⚫ 2. On a typical Saturday, how many cars does John
expect to sell?
Ans. 2.1
⚫ 3. What is the variance of the distribution?
Ans. 1.290
For more about symmetric and
skewed data watch this video
⚫ “Symmetric Data and Skewed Data Sets Histogram
for Unequal Class Width” available at Rao Hub
channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVoHgSjh1IU
Example
Mean or expected
value is the same
Exercises
End of video lecture on expected
value and variance of a random
variable.
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⚫ Viewers are welcome to post queries.
⚫ If you want these slides, then you may send an
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⚫ You are welcome to watch the playlists on this
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Probability Distributions
⚫ Discrete Probability Distributions
⚫ Binomial/Dichotomous outcomes
distribution
 How to use these lecture notes

⚫ Use these notes with Chapter 6 of… Douglas A. Lind,

William G. Marchal, Samuel Adam Wathen - Basic
Statistics For Business And Economics-McGraw-Hill
Education (2018). Answers to exercises are given at the end
of this book so you may try to solve exercise questions.
⚫ (See our video on Rao Hub (channel name) Rao Hub “How
to Download Books from the Genesis Library” (video title).
BINOMIAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION
1. An outcome on each trial of an experiment is classified
into one of two mutually exclusive categories-a success
or a failure.
2. The random variable counts the number of successes
in a fixed number of trials.
3. The probability of success and failure stay the same for
each trial.
4. The trials are independent, meaning that the outcome
of one trial does not affect the outcome of any other
trial.
Success or Failure
In how many ways, can exactly one
tail occur in two tosses of a coin?
⚫ The Sample space is {HH, HT, TH,TT}
⚫ So, 2 possible ways . We are not interested in order so, 2C1= 2 ways.
What is the probability that exactly can one
tail occur in two tosses of a coin?
Example; Binomial Experiment
Compare these two distributions
Compare these two distributions
Expectation or the Mean
⚫ .
Mean and Standard Deviation of
Binomial Distribution
Features of Binomial Distribution
If n remains the same but P increases from 0.05 to 0.95,
the shape of the distribution changes.
If P, the probability of success, remains the same but n
becomes larger, the shape of the binomial distribution
becomes more symmetrical.
Ex 15
The industry standards suggest that 10 percent of new
vehicles require warranty service within the first year. Jones
Nissan in Sumter, South Carolina, sold 12 Nissans
yesterday.
a. What is the probability that none of these vehicles
requires warranty service?
b. What is the probability exactly one of these vehicles
requires warranty service?
d. Compute the mean and standard deviation of this
probability distribution.
a. What is the probability that none of these
vehicles requires warranty service?
b. What is the probability exactly one of these
vehicles requires warranty service?
d. Compute the mean and standard deviation of
this probability distribution.

Expected number of vehicles that

require warranty service
Cumulative
In a binomial distribution n = 12 and P = .60.
Find the following probabilities.
x≤5
Binomial Cumulative Tables
Excel function for cumulative
binomial probabilities
Cumulative
In a binomial distribution n = 12 and P = .60. Find the
following probabilities.
P(x≥6)=1-0.158=0.842
End of Lecture Video on Binomial
Distribution
⚫ Please support our channel by subscribing.
⚫ Viewers are welcome to post queries.
⚫ If you want these slides, then you may send
an email at ashcash1983@gmail.com or
spectacular_iris@hotmail.com
⚫ You are welcome to watch the playlists on
this channel.
Probability Distributions
⚫ Discrete Probability Distributions
⚫ Hyper Geometric/Dichotomous outcomes
distribution
 How to use these lecture notes

⚫ Use these notes with Chapter 6 of… Douglas A. Lind,

William G. Marchal, Samuel Adam Wathen - Basic
Statistics For Business And Economics-McGraw-Hill
Education (2018). Answers to exercises are given at the end
of this book so you may try to solve exercise questions.
⚫ (See our video on Rao Hub (channel name) Rao Hub “How
to Download Books from the Genesis Library” (video title).
In how many ways can we select 1 blue
balls, if we draw 4 balls one by one without
replacement from a bag containing 5 blue
and 6 red balls?
 A deck of cards contains 20 cards: 6 red cards and 14 black cards. 5 cards are
drawn randomly without replacement. What is the probability that exactly 4 red
cards are drawn?
⚫ P(4 red cards) = # samples with 4 red cards and 1 black card / # of
possible 4 card samples.
HYPERGEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTION
⚫ If the selected item is replaced in the population,
then the probability of selecting that type of item
remains the same and the binomial assumptions are
met. In contrast, if the items are not
replaced—sampling without replacement—the
probabilities change with each selection, and, thus,
the appropriate probability model is the
HYPERGEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTION.
⚫ If the population is large (N> 10, 000) and the sample
size is small (less than 1%), then the change in
probability after each draw is very small. In those
situations the binomial is a very good approximation
and is typically used.
HYPERGEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTION
Multinomial Distribution
Three card players play a series of matches. The
probability that player A will win any game is 20%, the
probability that player B will win is 30%, and the
probability player C will win is 50%. If they play 6 games,
what is the probability that player A will win 1 game,
player B will win 2 games, and player C will win 3?

⚫ .
End of Lecture Video on
Hypergeometric Distribution and
Multinomial Distribution
⚫ Please support our channel by subscribing.
⚫ Viewers are welcome to post queries.
⚫ If you want these slides, then you may send
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⚫ You are welcome to watch the playlists on
this channel.
Poisson Probability Distribution
describes the number of times some event occurs
during a specified interval. The interval may be time,
distance, area, or volume.
1. The random variable is the number of times some
event occurs during a defined interval.
2. The probability of the event is proportional to the
size of the interval.
3. The intervals which do not overlap are independent.
Probability Distributions
⚫ Poisson Distribution
 How to use these lecture notes

⚫ Use these notes with Chapter 6 of… Douglas A. Lind,

William G. Marchal, Samuel Adam Wathen - Basic
Statistics For Business And Economics-McGraw-Hill
Education (2018). Answers to exercises are given at the end
of this book so you may try to solve exercise questions.
⚫ (See our video on Rao Hub (channel name) Rao Hub “How
to Download Books from the Genesis Library” (video title).
Assumptions of Poisson
Distribution
Examples
Errors in data entry
The number of scratches and other imperfections in newly
painted car panels
The number of defective parts in outgoing shipments

Where µ is the mean

e=2.71828, X is number of occurrences
P(x) is the probability of success
Main Features of Poisson
Distribution

4. Mean and Variance of Poisson distribution, are same.

Comparison of three discrete
distribution
⚫ Bernoulli and Binomial distribution: number of
successes in an independent trials (sampling with
replacement) with fixed sample size
⚫ Hypergeometric distribution: number of successes in a
dependent trials (sampling without replacement) with
fixed sample size
⚫ Poisson distribution: number of successes (events)
occurring in a fixed interval of time and/or space
without fixed sample size
Negative Binomial Distribution
⚫ Geometric distribution: number of trials until the 1st
success (including the success)
⚫ Negative Binomial distribution: number of trials
until the rth success (including the rth success)
⚫ In both Geometric and Negative Binomial
distribution, the trials are independent
Negative Binomial Distribution
⚫
The Negative Binomial Distribution
⚫ The negative binomial rv and distribution are based on an
experiment satisfying the following conditions:
⚫ 1. The experiment consists of a sequence of independent
trials.

2. Each trial can result in either a success (S) or a failure

(F).

3. The probability of success is constant from trial to trial,

so for i = 1, 2, 3, . . . .
The Negative Binomial Distribution
⚫ 4. The experiment continues (trials are performed)
until a
total of r successes have been observed, where r is a
specified positive integer.

⚫ The random variable of interest is X = the number of

failures that precede the rth success; X is called a
negative binomial random variable because, in
contrast to the binomial rv, the number of successes is
fixed and the number of trials is random.
A free throw, or foul
shot, is an unguarded
scoring attempt that
a referee awards a
basketball player
after an opposing
team member
commits a foul
against them, their
team, or an official.
Example
⚫ A pediatrician wishes to recruit 5 couples, each of
whom is expecting their first child, to participate in a
new natural childbirth regimen. Let p = P(a randomly
selected couple agrees to participate).
⚫ If p = .2, what is the probability that 15 couples must be
asked before 5 are found who agree to participate?
That is, with S = {agrees to participate}, what is the
probability that 10 F’s occur before the fifth S?
⚫ Substituting r = 5, p = .2 , and x = 10 into nb(x; r, p)
gives