Probability and Statistics

Random Variables

By:Mr. Jude Thaddeus Metante

 Random Variable
A Variable is any information, attribute, characteristic,
number or a quantity that describes a person, place,
event, thing or idea that can be measured or counted.

A variable can be:

 Qualitative - a variable that is not numerical. It
describes data that fits into category.
 Quantitative - a numerical variables: counts,
percent, numbers
 Qualitative Quantitative
(Example) (Example)
Eye colors Number of pets owned
(variable includes: blue, green, (1, 2, 3 or 6)
brown)
Municipality Bank account balance
(variable includes: Consolacion, (P1000, P3000 or P600)
Liloan, Minglanilla)
Dog Breed High School grade average
(variable includes: Shih Tzu, (85, 90, 89.5 or 76)
Siberian Husky, German
Sheperd)
Class in College
(variable includes: Junior,
Senior, Freshman, Sophomore)
 Quantitative variable can either be

a)discrete variable
- Discrete Data can only take certain values.
- a quantitative variable whose value can only be
attained through counting. It can be finite in
number of possible values or countably infinite if
the counting process has no end.
b) continuous
- Continuous Data can take any value (within a range).
- A continuous variable is a quantitative variable that
can assume an infinitely many, uncountable
number of real number values. The value given to
an observation can include values as small as
the instrument of measurement allows.
a) discrete variable
Example:
 the number of students in a class
(We can't have half a student!)

 the results of rolling 2 dice

(Only has the values 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 we
cannot get a value of 7.8)

b) Continuous
 A person's height: could be any value (within the range of
human heights), not just certain fixed heights,
 Time in a race: you could even measure it to fractions of
a second,
 A dog's weight,
 The length of a leaf,
 Lots more!
1. A market researcher company requested all
teachers of a particular school to fill up a ques-
tionnaire in relation to their product market
study. The following are some of the information
supplied by the teachers:
• highest educational attainment
• predominant hair color
• body temperature
• civil status
• brand of laundry soap being used
• total household expenditures last month in pesos
• number of children in the household
• number of hours standing in queue while waiting
to be served by a bank teller
• amount spent on rice last week by the household
• distance travelled by the teacher in going to
school
• time (in hours) consumed on Facebook on a
particular day
2. A survey of students in a certain school is
conducted. The survey questionnaire details
the information on the following variables. For
each of these variables, identify whether
the variable is qualitative or quantitative, and if
the latter, state whether it is discrete or
continuous.
a. number of family members who are working
b. ownership of a cell phone among family
members
c. length (in minutes) of longest call made on
each cell phone owned per month
d. ownership/rental of dwelling
e. amount spent in pesos on food in one
e. amount spent in pesos on food in one
f. occupation of household head
g. total family income
h. number of years of schooling of each family
member
i. access of family members to social media
j. amount of time last week spent by each family
member using the internet
Random Variable (X) - is a variable whose value is
dependent to the outcome of a well-defined random
event or experiment or a set of possible values from
a random experiment. (such as tossing a coin,
throwing a pair of dice or drawing a card from a
standard deck)
Sample Space (S) -a list of all possible outcomes that may occur in
an “event”.
Example 3: Find the Sample Space (S) when tossing 2 coins

HEADS (H)

TAILS (T)
{ , , , }
We can write S = {HH, HT, TH, TT}
 Example 3: How many heads when we toss 2 coins?
 
How many heads means finding of Random variable (X)
within a sample Space (S)
From the Example 3,
2 Heads

Sample Sample Space

HH HT TH TT
Space

X 2 1 1 0
Random Variables

Or we can write X = {2, 1, 0}

 
Finally X = {0, 1, 2} Random Variable
 Probability Distribution Function P(X) - is a function that
shows the relative probability that each outcome of an ex-
periment will happen.
 Example 5:
From Example 4, find the probability distribution function.
There are 4 sample
points in the sample
Therefore,
space

Sample
HH HT TH TT
Space P(X) =  

X 2 1 1 0

1 1 1 1
           
4 4 4 4

Same No. of Heads = 1 therefore add:

 
 To check your answer, the total P(X) should be equal to 1
P(X) = P(X=0) + P(X=1) + P(X=2)

P(X) =
 
Example   using Die: When rolling a
DIE
die there
  are 6 possible outcomes.
Its either {1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6}
 
Therefore S= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
Die Face = 6 sample points

Sample
Space
1 2 3 4 5 6 P(X) =  
X 1 2 3 4 5 6  
Therefore,  

Any of these could become

Random Variables
Probability Mass Function
is a probability distribution function of a discrete random
variable. It assigns a probability value to each sample
point.

Discrete Probability Distribution

is a table of values that shows the probability of any of
the outcomes of an experiment.
 Steps to Determine the Random Variables
Example: Tossing a Tossing a coin,
Event or Experiment coin, Rolling a die,
drawing of marbles,
etc..
Sample
A list of all possible out- HH HT TH TT
Space
Sample Space comes that may occur in
an “event”.

Set of possible values that Number of Heads

Random Variable we want to know or we are
X 2 1 1 0
Interested from the outcome
of a well defined Experiment.
     

Probability Function Therefore,

X 2 1 0

P(X=x) 1/4 1/2 1/4

P(X) =  

Probability Distribution
 Steps to Determine the Random Variables
Example: Tossing a Rolling a Die
Event or Experiment coin, Rolling a die,
drawing of marbles,
etc..
Sample
A list of all possible out- Space
Sample Space comes that may occur in
an “event”.

Set of possible values that Even numbers

Random Variable we want to know or we are
X
Interested from the outcome
of a well defined Experiment.

Probability Function

Probability Distribution
Example 1:
Determine the random variable of the sum of the number of a pair of
dice in a single throw.
Die A
1 2 3 4 5 6
Die B

1 [1, 1] = 2 [1, 2] = 3 [1, 3] = 4 [1,4] = 5 [1, 5] = 6 [1, 6] = 7 DIE

2 [2, 1] = 3 [2, 2] = 4 [2, 3] = 5 [2,4] = 6 [2, 5] = 7 [2, 6] = 8

3 [3, 1] = 4 [3, 2] = 5 [3, 3] = 6 [3,4] = 7 [3, 5] = 8 [3, 6] = 9

4 [4, 1] = 5 [4, 2] = 6 [4, 3] = 7 [4,4] = 8 [4, 5] = 9 [4, 6] = 10

DIE
5 [5, 1] = 6 [5, 2] = 7 [5, 3] = 8 [5,4] = 9 [5, 5] = 10 [5, 6] = 11

6 [6, 1] = 7 [6, 2] = 8 [6, 3] = 9 [6,4] = 10 [6, 5] = 11 [6, 6] = 12

Sum (x) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
P (X=x) 1/36 2/36 3/36 4/36 5/36 6/36 5/36 4/36 3/36 2/36 1/36
Example 1:
Three coin are tossed at the same time. What are the
possible outcomes? What is the probability of getting
3 heads?
Sample
1 2 3 Space
HHH HHT HTH HTT THH THT TTH TTT

H
H x 3 2 2 1 2 1 1 0
T
P (X=x)
H
H
T x 3 2 1 0
T P (X=x) 1/8 3/8 3/8 1/8

H
H
T
T
H
T
T
Example 2:
A coin is tossed 3 times. What are the possible outcomes?
What are the random variables if we are only interested of the
number of Heads?

1 2 3 Sample
Space

H
H x
T
P (X=x)
H
H
T
T

H
H
T
T
H
T
T
Example 3:
A couple is planning to have 3 children. Consider the
different result that might occur in terms of gender.
Determine the random variable if we are only inter-
ested in the number of boys. (ex. B B G)

1 2 3 Sample
Space

B
B
G
B x
B
G P (X=x)
G

B
B
G
G
B
G
G
Example 4:
A dart player is trying to hit the bulls eye with each of
three darts that he will throw. Each dart will either hit
the bulls eye or miss the bulls eye. Determine the
Sample space of the different outcomes that may
Occur. Determine the random variable if we are only
interested in the number of Misses.
H Sample
H Space
M
H
H x
M P (X=x)
M

H
H
M
M
H
M
M
1 2 3
Example 5:
If a two child families are classified according to the
sex of the first and second child. Determine the
Sample space of the different outcomes. Determine
the random variable if we are only interested in the
number of boys.
1 2
H Sample
Space

M x

P (X=x)

M
M
Example 6:
What are the possible outcomes when drawing two
marbles from a bag containing blue, green and red
marbles. Construct the probability distribution.
1 2 Sample
Space BB BG BR GB GG GR RB RG RR
B

G x 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0

B R P (X=x) 1/9 4/9 4/9

G G
R

R B

G
R
THANK YOU