RANDOM VARIABLES
AND PROBABILITY
DISTRIBUTION
STATISTICS
Statistics is the branch of mathematics
that involves collecting, organizing,
analyzing, interpreting, and presenting
data to understand patterns,
relationships, and trends.
PROBABILITY
Probability is the study of the likelihood
or chance of an event occurring.
STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY
Statistics often uses probability to make
predictions or infer patterns from data, and
probability models are built using statistical
methods to understand random events.
Together, they form the foundation for
decision-making in various fields like
science, business, and engineering.
PROBABILITY
1. EXPERIMENT refers to a process
or action conducted
Ex.
tossing a coin
rolling a die
drawing a card
PROBABILITY
2. OUTCOME result of a single trial
of an experiment.
Ex.
Tossing a coin
Outcome: H or T
PROBABILITY
To calculate the total number of outcomes,
multiply the number of outcomes for
each event.
Tossing a coin 3 times = 8 outcomes
Rolling 2 dice = 36 outcomes
Tossing a coin and rolling a dice = 12
outcomes
PROBABILITY
3. SAMPLE SPACE set of all possible
outcomes of an
experiment.
Ex.
Rolling a die
PROBABILITY
4. EVENT is a subset of the
sample space.
Ex.
Rolling a die
Event: Getting an even number
1. A coin is tossed 2 times. What is the
probability of getting two heads?
E: Getting two heads
Total number of outcomes: 4
Number of favorable outcomes: 1
P(E) =
2. Two dice are rolled. What is the
probability of getting a sum of 7 on the
two dice?
E: Getting a sum of 7
Total number of outcomes: 36
Number of favorable outcomes: 5
P(E) =
RANDOM VARIABLE
is a function that associate a real
number to each element in the sample
space. (Belecina et al., 2016).
RANDOM VARIABLE
RANDOM VARIABLE
2. CONTINUOUS VARIABLE = these
are variables that can take the form of
decimals.
Ex.
Height of a person
Temperature of a room
Time taken to complete a task
RANDOM VARIABLE
RANDOM VARIABLE
1. DISCRETE VARIABLE = these are
variables that cannot take the form of
decimals.
Ex.
Number of students in a classroom
Number of cars in a parking lot
Number of siblings a person has
Score in a basketball game
DISCRETE CONTINUOUS
Number of books on a shelf
DISCRETE CONTINUOUS
Distance travelled by a car
DISCRETE CONTINUOUS
Time spent in studying for
an exam
DISCRETE CONTINUOUS
Time spent in studying for
an exam
DISCRETE CONTINUOUS
FINDING THE SAMPLE
SPACE
EXPERIMENT SAMPLE SPACE
Tossing two coins HH, HT, TH, TT
1H, 1T, 2H, 2T, 3H, 3T,
Rolling a die and tossing a coin
4H, 4T, 5H, 5T, 6H, 6T
Drawing a heart from a deck of cards 2♥, 3♥, 4♥, 5♥, 6♥, 7♥, 8♥,
9♥, 10♥, A♥, J♥, Q♥, K♥
Tossing a coin and getting an even H2, H4, H6, H8
counting number less than 10 T2, T4, T6, T8
FINDING POSSIBLE VALUES
OF A RANDOM VARIABLE
Steps in finding possible values of random variable:
1. To determine the sample space/number possible
outcomes
2. Make a table
3. Identify the possible values of the random variable.
Example:
Two balls are drawn in succession without
replacements from a basket, contains 4
yellow balls and 6 blue balls. Let X be the
random variable representing the number of
blue balls, Find the values of the random
variable X.
Example:
Two balls are drawn in succession without replacements from a
basket, contains 4 yellow balls and 6 blue balls. Let X be the
random variable representing the number of blue balls, Find the
values of the random variable X.
1. Determine the sample space/number of outcomes
YY, YB, BY, BB
Example:
Two balls are drawn in succession without replacements from a
basket, contains 4 yellow balls and 6 blue balls. Let X be the
random variable representing the number of blue balls, Find the
values of the random variable X.
2. Make a table
VALUES OF THE RANDOM VARIABLE X
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
(number of blue balls)
YY 0
YB 1
BY 1
BB 2
Example:
Two balls are drawn in succession without replacements from a
basket, contains 4 yellow balls and 6 blue balls. Let X be the
random variable representing the number of blue balls, Find the
values of the random variable X.
3. Identify the possible values of the random variable x
VALUES OF THE RANDOM VARIABLE X
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
(number of blue balls)
YY 0
YB 1
BY 1
BB 2
The possible values of the random variable X is 0, 1, 2.
Example:
Suppose three coins are tossed. Let P be
the random variable representing the
number of tails that occur. Find the values
of the random variable P.
Example:
Suppose three coins are tossed. Let P be the random variable
representing the number of tails that occur. Find the values of the
random variable P.
VALUES OF THE RANDOM VARIABLE P
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
(number of tails)
PROBABILITY
DISTRIBUTION
Find the probability of the following events.
1. Getting an odd number in a single roll of a die.
𝟏
𝟐
2. Getting a sum of 6 when two dice are rolled.
𝟓
𝟑𝟔
3. Getting an ace when card is drawn from a deck.
𝟏
𝟏𝟑
4. Getting a sum of 11 when two dice are rolled.
𝟏
𝟏𝟖
5. Getting a black queen when a card is drawn from a
𝟏
deck. 𝟐𝟔
Probability Distribution
A probability distribution is a function or
a rule that assigns probabilities to
outcomes of a random variable.
Properties of a Probability
Distribution
1. The probability of each value of the random
variable must be between or equal to 0 and 1.
2. The sum of the probability of all values of the
random variable must be equal to 1.
Example: Drawing Balls from Urn
Two balls are drawn in succession without
replacements from an urn that contains 5
red balls and 6 blue balls. Let Z be the
random variable representing the number
of red balls, construct the probability
distribution of the random variable Z.
VALUES OF THE RANDOM VARIABLE Z
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
(number of RED balls)
RR 2
RB 1
BR 1
BB 0
Number of red
0 1 2
balls (Z)
P(Z)
1 1 1
4 2 4
Example: Tossing Three Coins
Suppose three coins are tossed. Let Y be
the random variable representing
the number of heads that occur. Construct
the probability distribution.
VALUES OF THE RANDOM VARIABLE Y
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
(number of heads)
HHH 3
HHT 2
HTH 2
HTT 1
THH 2
THT 1
TTH 1
TTT 0
Number of
0 1 2 3
heads (Y)
1 3 3 1
P(Y)
8 8 8 8
Example: Rolling a Die
A fair six-sided die is rolled. Let 𝑋 be the
random variable representing the outcome
of the roll. Construct the probability
distribution.
Outcomes
(X) 1 2 3 4 5 6
11 1 1 1 1
P(X) 66 6 6 6 6
Example: Rolling a Die
Let 𝑌 be the random variable representing
Suppose two six-sided dice are rolled.
the sum of the numbers that appear on the
distribution for 𝑌.
two dice. Construct the probability
Su
m
of
the
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
nu
mb
ers
(Y)
P(Y)
