In your introductory studies on probability, the concept of experiments, sample spaces, and

events have been introduced to you. In this module, instead of looking at the outcomes of an
experiments as belonging to a certain events, we will associate values to these outcomes by
defining what we call random variables.
Motivation
A fair coin is tossed three times and the sequence of heads (H) and tails (T) is observed. List
the outcomes of the experiment.
Based on the result, the value of this variable varies among points in the sample space and it
is considered random based on chance. This is why we call such a number a random variable.

Instruction/Delivery

A random variable is a variable whose values depend on the outcomes of an experiment .

It is a function that maps the outcome of an experiment to real numbers. A random variable
is usually denoted by an uppercase letter of the alphabet and its possible values are denoted
with the corresponding lowercase letter.

Some examples of random variables are listed below.

A = the sum of the numbers that turn up when a pair of dice is tossed
B = the distanced leaped in meters by a long0jumper in a competition
C = the length of time in minutes that a scheduled airplane flight is delayed
D = the number of correct answers a student get in a 10-item true-false test
E = the length of time it takes a swimmer to compete a 100-meter freestyle race
F = the number of defective items in a sample of 10 production items randomly
selected from a manufacturing process.

Random variables are classified as one of two types: discrete or continuous.

A discrete random variable is easily identified by determining the number of

values it may assume. If the number of values that the random variable may
assume can be counted, it must be discrete.
 Examples of discrete random variables
----The number of defective bolts in a sample of 10 bolts drawn from a production,
---- The number of people in the waiting line in a doctor’s clinic,
---- The number of automobile accidents per year in Metro Manila
The word continuous as an adjective means proceeding without interruption. It, in
itself, provides the key identity for identifying continuous random variables. We look for
the measurements with a set of values that form points on a line with no interruptions or
intervening spaces between them.
Examples of continuous random variables
---- The height of human
---- the length of life of a cell phone battery
----the amount of sugar in an apple
The Discrete Probability Distribution
Every random variable is associated with a probability distribution that describes it
completely. It is common to define discrete random variables in terms of their
probability mass function and continuous random variables in terms of their probability
distribution function. Both variables can also be defined in terms of cumulative
distribution function. For convenience, we use terms like “probability distribution” and
“distribution” to refer the probability mass function.
The probability distribution of a discrete random variable x shows the probabilities
associated with all possible outcomes. The probabilities must satisfy the following
conditions.
1. Each probability must be between 0 and 1.
2. The sum of all the probabilities is 1.
Example 1. Compute the probabilities for each of random variable x.
Given the variable x and the frequency of its occurrence

x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
f 2 3 5 10 15 12 8 5
Solution:
x f P(x)
0 2 0.03
1 3 0.05
2 5 0.08
3 10 0.17
4 15 0.25
5 12 0.20
6 8 0.13
7 5 0.08
total 60

Example 2. Mary sells homemade hotdogs. Because of the growing sales of her
business, she wishes to analyze her sales to decide if she needs to expand. The
following table shows the collected data from the last month.
Number of hotdogs sold Number of customer
per transaction
1 235
2 160
3 55
4 35
5 10
6 5

If Mary wants to know the probability of getting a specific number of orders per
transaction, then she must make a probability distribution table.
Let X represent the number of hotdogs sold per customer. We now estimate the
probability for each value of X, that is the probability that the random variable X takes on
some values x. In symbol, P(X=x).

Number of hotdogs Number of P(X = x )

sold per customer
transaction
1 235 235
= 0.47
500
2 160 160
= 0.32
500
3 55 55
= 0.11
500
 4 35 35
= 0.07
500
5 10 10
= 0.02
500
6 5 5
=0.01
500
Total 500 1

The graph of the distribution may look like the following

This distribution can be used to answer the following questions.

a. How likely is it that the next costumer will buy just one hotdog?
Solution
From the table, we have P( X = 1) = 0.47 or 47%
b. Out of 350 costumers, how many are expected to buy more than three hotdogs?
Solution
P( X > 3) = P( X=4) + P( X =5) + P( X = 6)
= 0 07 + 0.02 + 0. 01
 = 0.10 or 10%
Out of 350 costumers, 10% are expected to buy more than three hotdogs
350 x 0.10 = 35
Therefore, 35 costumers are expected to buy more than three hotdogs