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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : How To Find Standard Deviation Of A Random Variable
We have two independent, normally distributed random variables and such that has mean and variance and has mean and variance . What is the probability distribution of the difference of the random variables, ?
Normal distribution with mean and variance .
Normal distribution with mean and variance .
Normal distribution with mean and variance .
Normal distribution with mean and variance .
Normal distribution with mean and variance .
The mean for any set of random variables is additive in the sense that
The difference is also additive, so we have
This means the mean of is .
The variance is additive when the random variables are independent, which they are in this case. But it's additive in the sense that for any real numbers (even when negative), we have
.
So for this difference, we have
.
So the mean and variance are and , respectively. In addition to that, is normally distributed because the sum or difference of any set of independent normal random variables is also normally distributed.
Example Question #2 : How To Find Standard Deviation Of A Random Variable
If and are two independent random variables with and , what is the standard deviation of the sum,
If the random variables are independent, the variances are additive in the sense that
.
So then the variance of the sum is
.
The standard deviation is the square root of the variance, so we have
.
Example Question #1 : How To Find Standard Deviation Of A Random Variable
Consider the discrete random variable that takes the following values with the corresponding probabilities:
- with
- with
- with
Compute the probability .
This probability is simple to compute:
We want to add the probability that X is greater or equal to two. This means the probability that X=2 or X=3.
Adding the necessary probabilities we arrive at the solution.
Example Question #2 : How To Find Standard Deviation Of A Random Variable
Consider the discrete random variable that takes the following values with the corresponding probabilities:
- with
- with
- with
- with
Compute the expected value of the distribution.
The expected value is computed as
for any values of x that the random variable takes.
So we have
Example Question #4 : How To Find Standard Deviation Of A Random Variable
The average number of calories in a Lick Yo' Lips lollipop is , with a standard deviation of . The calories per lollipop are normally distributed, so what percent of lollipops have more than calories?
The random variable number of calories per lollipop, so the answer is
or
Example Question #1 : How To Find Standard Deviation Of A Random Variable
Robert's work schedule for next week will be released today. Robert will work either 45, 40, 25, or 12 hours. The probabilities for each possibility are listed below:
45 hours: 0.3
40 hours: 0.2
25 hours: 0.4
12 hours: 0.1
What is the standard deviation of the possible outcomes?
There are four steps to finding the standard deviation of random variables. First, calculate the mean of the random variables. Second, for each value in the group (45, 40, 25, and 12), subtract the mean from each and multiply the result by the probability of that outcome occurring. Third, add the four results together. Fourth, find the square root of the result.
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