TUTORIAL

Expectation And Variance Of

Discrete Random Variable
MODEL ANSWERS
Suppose that a pair of fair dice are to be tossed, and let
the random variable x denote the sum of the points.
(a) Obtain the probability distribution for x.
(b) Compute the mean and variance of x.

1
𝑖𝑓 𝑥 = 2
36
2
𝑖𝑓 𝑥 = 3
f(x) = 36
⋮
⋮
1
𝑖𝑓 𝑥 = 12
36
E(x) = (2x1/36) + (3x2/36) + … + (12 x 1/36)
=7

E(x2) = (22x1/36) + (32x2/36) + … + (122 x 1/36)

=329/6 = 54.8333

Var(x) = 329/6 – (72) = 35/6 = 5.8333

The probability of obtaining a head when tossing a coin is 2/3 and the
probability of obtaining a tail is 1/3. The coin is tossed three times.
Let the random variable X denote the largest number of successive heads which
occurs.
(a) Obtain the probability distribution for X.
(b) Compute the mean and variance of X.
E(x) = (0 x 1/27) + (1 x 10/27) + (2 x 8/27) + (3 x 8/27)
= 50/27 = 1.852

E(x2) = (02 x1/27) + (12x10/27) + (22x8/27) + (32 x 8/27)

=38/9 = 4.222

Var(x) = 38/9 – (50/27)2 = 578/729 = 0.793

A fair coin is tossed until a head or five tails occurs. Find the expected number
of tosses of the coin.
A player tosses two fair coins. He wins $1 or $2 according as 1 or 2 heads
appear.
On the other hand, he loses $5 if no heads appear.
Determine the expected value of the game and if it is favourable to the player.