PROBABILITY

DISTRIBUTION
2 TYPES OF PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

1.Discrete Probability Distribution

2.Continuous Probability Distribution
PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• Also known as probability mass function, is a

table that gives a list of probability values
along with their associated value in the
range of a discrete random variable.
DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• In the study of random events, you should

be interested not only in determining the
possible value of a random variable but also
in the probability that the variable will
assume that particular value.
DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• If you have a random variable and you know

all the possible values that the variable can
take on, you can easily determine the
probability that the random variable will
have a particular value.
DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• For example, consider the random event of

tossing four coins and the variable X gives
the number of heads that appear.
• your range space, then, will be the set {0, 1,
2, 3, 4}. You know that there are 16 possible
outcomes as follows:
DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

HHHH HTHH THHH TTHH

HHHT HTHT THHT TTHT
HHTH HTTH THTH TTTH
HHTT HTTT THTT TTTT
DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• Since there is only one outcome that will

give no head, TTTT, then the probability of X
1
when it assumes a value of 0 is or 0.0625.
16
this can be written as P(X=0) = 0.0625.
 DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• Similarly, you can determine the following probabilities:

4 1 4 1
P(X=1) = = or 0.25 P(X=3) = = or 0.25
16 4 16 4
6 3 1
P(X=2) = = or 0.375 P(X=4) = = 0.0625
16 8 16
 DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION

• To summarize,
Number of Heads (X)
0 1 2 3 4
Probability (P(X))
0.0625 0.25 0.375 0.25 0.0625

This table is called a probability distribution