EXPLANATION FOR PARTS B AND C OF ACTIVITY 6.

Part B:
To show that the information constitutes a probability distribution we will need to
find the probability associated with each of the random variables. Once the
probability associated with each random variable is in the range 0  P(X=x)  1, and
the summation of the probabilities is equal to 1 then the information in the question
constitutes a random variable.

To find the probability associated with each random variable you need to use the
( x  3) 2
following formula: P(X = x) = .
30

So for the random variable X = -1 the probability is:

(1  3) 2  4 2 16
   0.5333
30 30 30
(0  3) 2  3 2 9
For the random variable X = 0 the probability is:    0.30
30 30 30
(1  3) 2  2 2 4
For the random variable X = 1 the probability is:    0.1333
30 30 30
(2  3) 2  12 1
For the random variable X = 2 the probability is:    0.0333
30 30 30
Since the probabilities associated with the four random variables are in the range
0P(X=x)  1 and the summation of the probabilities is equal to 1
16 9 4 1 30
(      1)
30 30 30 30 30

Part C:
The mean of a discrete random variable (a.k.a. the expected value of a discrete
random variable) can be found using the following formula:
 E ( X )   xi P( xi )

So the mean value of X in this question can be found by doing the following:
E(X) = (-1  0.5333) + (0  0.30) + (1  0.1333) + (2  0.0333) = -0.5333 + 0
+ 0.1333 + 0.06667 = -0.3333