INTRODUCTION
TO
RANDOM VARIABLES
BY
HAIDER ABBAS NAQVI
Inferential Statistics:
A decision, estimate, prediction, or generalization about a
population, based on a sample.
A population is a collection of all possible individuals, objects, or
measurements of interest.
A sample is a portion, or part, of the population of interest.
Random Variable
Definition 1
A numerical event whose value is determined by a chance process. This definition
valid when the variable or information is in the form of numbers.
Example:
No. of “A” grade students in the class,
No. of units sold per day,
height of male students in the class etc.
Definition 2
“A rule which assigns numbers to the outcomes of the possibility space is called a
Random Variable”.
This definition is valid when outcomes are non numeric. Capital English letters say X
to denote a random variable and its corresponding small letter, x in this case for one
of its values.
Random Variables
A quantitative variable x is a random variable if the value that x takes
on in a given experiment or observation is a chance or random
outcome.
A discrete random variable can take on only a finite number of values
or a countable number of values.
A continuous random variable can take on any of the countless
number of values in a line interval.
Probability distribution
A probability distribution is an assignment of
probabilities to each distinct value of a discrete random
variable or to each interval of values of a continuous
random variable.
Features of the probability distribution of a discrete
random variable
1. The probability distribution has a probability assigned to
each distinct
value of the random variable.
2. The sum of all the assigned probabilities must be 1.
Example:
A coin is tossed three times. Find the possibility space and the values of the random
variables X , Y , and N where;
X is the number of heads,
Y is the number of tails
N is the Sum of Heads and Tail ,
consider value of head +1 and Tail -1
Possibility Space X Y N
HHH 3 0 3
HHT 2 1 1
HTH 2 1 1
HTT 1 2 -1
THH 2 1 1
THT 1 2 -1
TTH 1 2 -1
TTT 0 3 -3
Difference between Discrete and Continuous random Variable
Discrete Random Variable: Continuous Random Variable:
Countable set of distinct values. Any value within some interval
Discrete data is counted. say 1 to 3.
It can take only integer values, Continuous data is measured.
It can take values including
never include fractions or
decimal. fractions and decimals.
Discrete data can only take Continuous data can take any
certain values. value including decimal points
Examples: within a range.
Number of classes missed last Examples:
Hours spent exercising last week.
week.
Number of patients in a Hospital. Time required to finish a test.
Discrete Probability Distribution:
A table or a function (called as discrete probability distribution function) listing all
possible values that a discrete random variable X can take on, along with the associated
probabilities, is called a discrete probability distribution. In any discrete probability
distribution, the sum of probabilities should always be equal to one”.
Example: A coin is tossed three times. Develop the probability distribution table for the
random variable X, where X is the number of heads
Probability distribution table for X
X P(X)
0 1/8
1 3/8
2 3/8
3 1/8
Total Probability 8/8 = 1
