Classroom Management

1, 2, 3…

Best Morning!!!
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deley!!!”
Continuous and
Discrete Random
Variables
Mrs. Maylene A. Mangurali
November 4, 2019
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
• illustrate random variables and
• distinguish between a discrete and a continuous random
variable.
Before you proceed with this lesson, you should be able to
identify the elements of a set and the domain and the range
of a function.
Identifying the Elements of a Set
• Consider the set of colors in a rainbow. The elements of
that set are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
violet. All of those elements constitute the sample space of
that set.
Domain and Range of a Function
• Recall that the domain of a function is the set of values
of x while the range is the set of values of y. For example,
the set of ordered pairs {(2,5),(3,7),(4,9),(5,11)} is a
function with domain {2,3,4,5} and range {5,7,9,11}.
Learn about it!
A random variable is a function whose domain is the sample space of a random
experiment, and the range of values is the set of real numbers.
Example
Consider a random experiment of tossing a fair coin three times. In this scenario, the
domain can be defined as the set of all possible outcomes of the experiment and the
range of the random variable as the total number of tails that comes out after tossing
a coin three times.
Let Y be the number of tails in the tossing of fair coin three times (the
random variable).
The set of possible outcomes (domain) of the experiment is as follows:
{HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT}
For each element in the domain, there is a corresponding value for the
random variable Y.The specific value of a random variable is denoted by small letter y.
The domain and range of the random variable Y are shown in the table below:

Therefore, the possible values of the random variable are 0, 1, 2, 3.

Learn about it!
Random variables are classified as either discrete or
continuous.
• A discrete random variable is a random variable whose set
of all possible values are countable or infinitely countable.
It can be represented as separate points on a number line.
The following are examples of discrete random variables:
• the number of correct answers in a 5-item true or false quiz
• the number of siblings of your classmates
• the number of people in each country
• A continuous random variable is a random variable whose
set of all possible values are not countable or infinite. It can
be represented as an interval.
The following are examples of continuous random variables:
• the height of each student in a class
• the weight of each plane baggage
• the waiting time before a person gets a taxi in a taxi stand
• Explore
• Consider the place where you are
right now, be it a classroom, living
room, or a library. Can you name
one discrete random variable and
one continuous random variable
related to the things that you can
see? How do you get the values
of those random variables?
Try it!
Determine whether the following variables
is discrete or continuous.
• number of leaves of a 10-week old plant
• amount of time rendered in using social
media applications
• temperature of air in different times of
the day
• rating of an employee in a 10-point scale
• number of coins in a piggy bank
Tip
• There are cases of discrete random variables that may
have infinite values. For instance, the experiment is
counting the number of sand in beaches. Although it
would be impractical and senseless to conduct that
experiment, the kind of random variable it would
generate is still discrete.
Key Points
• Random variable is a function that takes on all the
possible outcomes of an experiment and assigns for
each of them a corresponding real number.
• Discrete random variables are countable or countably
infinite.
• Continuous random variables are not countable or
infinite.