RANDOM VARIABLES

WHAT IS RANDOM VARIABLE?

The result of a chance event that you can measure or count.
Simply quantifying outcomes
Commonly represented by a capital letter like X,Y and Z.

WHY WE’RE DOING THIS?

As soon as you quantify outcomes, you can start to do a little bit math on the
outcomes or you can start to do more mathematical notation on the outcome.
2 VARIETIES OF RANDOM VARIABLE
DISCRETE RANDOM VARIABLE
A discrete value is one which can assume any of a set of possible values which can be counted
or listed. It is also the one that arises when we count how many times a certain quantity
occurs.

Example:
if we flip five coins and the random variable X represents the number
of heads that occur.

CONTINUOUS RANDOM VARIABLE

A continuous random variable is one which can assume any of an infinite spectrum of different
values across an interval and which cannot be listed. It is also the one that arises when we
measure a certain quantity.

Example:
height of individuals
 In the following examples given,
decide whether they would be
modelled as a discrete random
variable, a continuous random
variable, or not a random variable.
 Weight of a suitcase - Continuous random variable

Number of emergency calls in an - Discrete random

hour variable

Marital Status - Not a random variable

Time taken to finish an exam - Continuous random variable

 Length of a tulips stem - Continuous random variable

Color of a sunflower - Not a random variable

No. of students who pass the exam - Discrete random variable

Probability Distributions for
Discrete Random Variables
It is a graph, table or formula that gives the
possible values of x and the probability p(x)
associated with each value.

We must have
0  p ( x)  1 and  p( x)  1
Example
Toss a fair coin three times and define x = number of
heads. Construct a probability histogram.

Toss two dice and define x = sum of two dice.

Construct a probability histogram.
 Example
Toss a fair coin three times and
define x = number of heads.
x x p(x)
HHH
1/8 3 P(x = 0) = 1/8 0 1/8
HHT P(x = 1) = 3/8 1 3/8
1/8 2
HTH P(x = 2) = 3/8 2 3/8
1/8 2 P(x = 3) = 1/8
THH 3 1/8
1/8 2
HTT
1/8 1
THT Probability
1/8 1 Histogram for x
TTH 1/8 1
TTT 1/8 0
Example
Toss two dice and define
x = sum of two dice. x p(x)

2 1/36
3 2/36
4 3/36
5 4/36
6 5/36
7 6/36
8 5/36
9 4/36
10 3/36
11 2/36
12 1/36
Probability Distributions
Probability distributions can be used to describe
the population.
– Shape: Symmetric, skewed, mound-shaped…
– Outliers: unusual or unlikely measurements
– Center and spread: mean and standard
deviation. The symbol for population mean is
m and for the population standard deviation is
s.
The Mean
and Standard Deviation
Let x be a discrete random variable with
probability distribution p(x). Then the
mean, variance and standard deviation of
x are given as

Mean : m   xp( x)
Variance : s  ( x  m ) p( x)
2 2

Standard deviation : s  s 2