STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY

MEAN, VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF A

DISCRETE RANDOM VARIABLE
• The mean of a discrete random variable X is also called the expected value of X.
It is weighted average of all the values that the random variable X would assume
in long run. The discrete random variable X assumes values of outcomes in every
trial of an experiment with their corresponding probabilities.
• The expected value of X is the average of the outcomes that is likely to be
obtained if the trials are repeated over and over again. The expected value of X
is denoted by E(X)
• The mean or expected value of discrete random variable X is computed using the
ff. formulas:

• 𝐸 𝑋 = σ[𝑥𝑃 𝑥 ]
• X= Discrete random variable
• x= outcome or value of the random variable
• P(x)= Probability of the outcome x
EXAMPLE NO. 1

• A researcher surveyed the household in a small town. The random variable X

represents the number of college graduate in the households. The probability
distribution of X is shown below:
x 0 1 2
P(x) 0.25 0.50 0.25

• Find the mean or expected value of X

 SOLUTION
x P(x) xP (x)

0 0.25

1 0.50

2 0.25

𝐸 𝑋 = σ[𝑥𝑃 𝑥 ] =

The expected value is 1. so the average number of college graduate in the household of the
small town is one.
 EXAMPLE NO. 2

• A random variable X has this probability distribution:

x 1 2 3 4
P(x) 0.10 0.20 0.45 0.25

• Calculate the expected values

SOLUTION

x P(x) xP (x)
1 0.10
2 0.20
3 0.45
4 0.25
𝐸 𝑋 = σ[𝑥𝑃 𝑥 ] =

So E(X) = 2.85
EXAMPLE NO. 3

• A security guard recorded the number of people entering the bank every hour
during one working day. The random variable X represent the number of people
who entered the bank. The probability distribution of X is shown below:

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
P(x) 0 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.1

• What is the expected number of people who enters the bank every hour?
SOLUTION
X P(x) xP (x)
0 0
1 0.1
2 0.2
3 0.4
4 0.2
5 0.1
𝐸 𝑋 = σ[𝑥𝑃 𝑥 ] =
෍ 𝑃 𝑥 = 1.0

Therefore the average number of people entering the bank every hour during that working day is three
 VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF A
DISCRETE RANDOM VARIABLE
• The variance of a random variable x is denoted by 𝜎 2 . It can likewise be written as var
(X). The variance of random variance of random variable is the expected value of the
square of the difference between the assumed value of random variable and the mean .
The variance of x is :
• Var (x) = σ[(𝑥 − 𝜇)2 P(x)]
• Or 𝜎 2 = σ[(𝑥 − 𝜇)2 𝑃(𝑥)]
• Where:
• x = outcome
• 𝜇 = 𝑃𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
• P(x) = Probability of the outcome
• The larger the value of the variance , the farther are values of X from the mean.
The variance is tricky to interpret since it uses the square of the unit of measure of
X. so it is easier to interpret the value of the standard deviation because it uses the
same unit of measure X.

• The standard deviation of a discrete random variable X is written as

𝜎. It is the square root of the variance. The standard deviation Is computed as :

• 𝜎 = σ[(𝑥 − 𝜇)2 𝑃(𝑥)]