Random Variables Marios A.

Pappas
mpap@iit.demokritos.gr
6972808879

Random Variables
A random variable represents in number form the possible outcomes which
could occur for some random experiment. A discrete random variable X, has
possible values x1, x2, x3,..

For example,
The number of students with GPA over 3.
The number of new cars sold in Greece this month.

1. Discrete Probability Distribution.

The probability of a given outcome lies between o and 1. Hence
0 1
1 + 2 + 3 + + = 1

Expected Value (Mean) of a Discrete Random Variable.

If there are trials of an experiment and an event has probability p of

occurring in each trial, then the number of times we expect the event to occur
is .
In general the expectation of the random variable is

==
=1

Example: A fair six-sided die is tossed. You win 2$ if the result is 1, you win 1$
if the result is 6, but otherwise you lose 1$.

The probability distribution for = :

X +2$ +1$ -1$

Probability 1 1 4
6 6 6

1 1 4 1
= 2 + 1 1 = $ = 16.667
6 6 6 6

So if you play many times, you are expected to lose 16.667 cents.
Random Variables Marios A. Pappas
mpap@iit.demokritos.gr
6972808879

2. Continuous Random variable (HL)

Let a continuous random variable then there is a function () which is

called probability density function (pdf) and through a procedure describes
the variable.

Generally, for a continuous random variable with probability density

function (or pdf) () it holds
i. () 0
+
ii.
= 1
while the probability that X takes values between and is

=

For a continuous variable we do care only for the probability on an

interval, not a specific value; Hence
and < <
are exactly the same since = = 0.

Example: Let = , 0 4
2
2
+ 2 2
Then
= 0 2
= =1
4 0
And
1
1
01 = =
0 2 4

Expected Value: = ()

The expected value () which in fact is the mean is defined by

+
= = ()

Variance: ()

The variance is defined by

2
=
which is interpreted as
+
= 2 ()

A more practical definition is
= 2 2
+
where 2 = 2 () .
Random Variables Marios A. Pappas
mpap@iit.demokritos.gr
6972808879
Mode
It is the value of for which () achieves its maximum.

Median
It is the value for which = 0.5. So, in order to determine the median
we need to evaluate the integral

= 0.5

Quartiles
If we apply a similar procedure as for the median we can determine the
quartiles. Particularly,
1
1 = 0.25,
= 0.25
2
2 = 0.75,
= 0.75

Remark: Assume that we have a pdf

1 ,
=
2 ,

We evaluate the integral
= .

If > 0.5, the median is between and , so we solve
1 =
0.5

If < 0.5, the median is between and , so we solve
2 =
0.5