Application of Mean Activities (Expected Value)

A pizza shop delivers only one kind of pizza, which is sold for $10, and costs the pizza shop $6 to make. The
pizza shop has a delivery policy that says if the pizza takes longer than half an hour to arrive, there is no
charge. Experience has shown that delivery takes longer than half an hour only 10% of the time.

Let the random variable X be the pizza shop's profit for a randomly selected delivery order for one of these
pizzas. Find the expected value of the amount of profit pizza shop would earn.

X P(X) X * P(X)
4 90% or 0.9 3.6
-6 10% or 0.10 -0.6
Expected Value = 3 dollar

Jordan wants to play a basketball game at a carnival. The game costs the player $5 to play, and the player gets
to take two long-distance shots. If they miss both shots, they get nothing. Jordan has a 36% chance of making
this shot. If they make one shot, they get their $5 back and they have 48% chance of making this shot. If they
make both shots, they get $10 back. Jordan has a 16% chance of making this type of shot. Find the
expected value of the amount money Jordan can earn.

X P(X) X * P(X)
-5 36% or 0.36 -1.8
0 48% or 0.48 0
5 16% or 0.16 0.8
Expected Value = -1 dollar
Eva loves to go fishing. Each time she catches a fish, there is a 49% chance that it is has no fish, 42%
that there is 1 fish caught, and a 9% chance it has 2 fishes caught. Let X be the random variable that
represents the number of fish Eva gets. Find the expected value of the fishes Eva gets.

X P(X) X * P(X)
0 49% or .49 0
1 42% or .42 0.42
2 9% or .09 0.18
Expected Value = 0.6 fish

Kelsie works at a bicycle shop as a salesperson. She records the number of bicycles she sells on a
daily basis. If 0 bicycles was sold, she spends 0 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of
30%. If 1 bicycles was sold, she spends 10 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of 50%. If
2 bicycles was sold, she spends 20 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of 15%. If 3
bicycles was sold, she spends 30 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of 5%. Find the
expected value of the amount of time Kelsie spends filling out daily sales reports.

X P(X) X * P(X)
0 30% or 0.30 0
10 50% or 0.50 5
20 15% or 0.15 3
30 5% or 0.05 1.5
Expected Value = 9.5 minutes

A couple decides to keep having children until they have a boy, at which point they will stop having
children. They also agree to having a maximum of three children. If they have 1 child, the probability
of having boy is ½. If they would have 2 children, the probability of having boy is ¼. And if they would
have 3 children, the probability of having boy is 1/4 as well. On average, how many children would
such a couple have?

X P(X) X * P(X)
1 ½ or 50% or 0.5 0.5
2 ¼ or 25% or 0.25 0.5
3 ¼ or 25% or 0.25 0.75
Expected Value = 1.75 children
Kelsie works at a bicycle shop as a salesperson. She records the number of bicycles she sells on a
daily basis. If 0 bicycles was sold, she spends 0 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of
30%. If 1 bicycles was sold, she spends 10 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of 50%. If
2 bicycles was sold, she spends 20 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of 15%. If 3
bicycles was sold, she spends 30 minutes in recording and gives her a probability of 5%. Find the
expected value of the bicycle Kelsie would sold.

X P(X) X * P(X)
0 30% or 0.30 0
1 50% or 0.50 0.5
2 15% or 0.15 0.3
3 5% or 0.05 0.15
Expected Value = 0.95 minutes

Roulette is a casino game that involves players betting on where a ball will land on a spinning wheel. An
American roulette wheel has 38 numbered slots — half of the slots from 1 to 36 are red and the other half are
black. Slots 0 and 00 are both green.

Suppose that a player bets $1 on the color red. If the ball lands in a red slot, the player gets their initial $1 back
plus a payout $1. If the ball doesn't land in a red slot, they lose $1 bet. Find the expected value of the money
you could win at the Roulette.

X P(X) X * P(X)
1 18/38 or 47.37% or 0.4737 0.4737
-1 20/38 or 52.63% or 0.5263 -0.5263
Expected Val. = -0.0526 dollars
or -2/38 dollars