PROBABILITY

DISTRIBUTION and
SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION
Probability Distribution
Is the listing of possible values of the random
variable X and their corresponding probabilities.
Your Teacher selects 3 contestants for the annual Mathematics
contest in your school. There are 5 contenders who are
equally good and prepared for the contest: 3 females and 2
males.

01
The possible composition of the set of contestants according
to gender is listed below.
01
S: FFF FFM FMM MMM

MMF MFF FMF MFM

Let us suppose that the selection is a statistical experiment. Let S be a
sample space which is the set of all possible outcomes of the experiment .
Each outcome from S in considered an event.
If we want to observe the number of females in the group of 3, we call it a
random variable X.
Let X= the number of females in each event. Here X referred to as the
random variable.
Values of the Random Variable
Event X
FFF 3
FFM 2
MFF 2
FMF 2
FMM 1
MMF 1
MFM 1
MMM 0
 The Probability Distribution For
Random Variable X

Occurrence Probability
X
0 1 0.125
1 3 0.375
2 3 0.375
Event X
FFF 3
3
1 0.125 FFM 2
Total MFF 2
8 1.000 FMF 2
FMM 1
MMF 1
MFM 1
MMM 0
A graphical presentation of the probability distribution of
females in groups of 3 is shown below.

PR
O
BA 0.375

BI
LI
TY 0.125

0 1 2 3
No. of Females
 Probability A random variable may be discrete
or continuous. Discrete random
Distribution of variables represent exact values,
like number of females, number of
Formula red balls, etc. Continuous Random
variables represent data which are
measurable, like weights, heights,
ages, etc.
Sampling Distribution
Is the probability distribution of a sample statistic.
To illustrate, let us use a sampling distribution of the means. Assume that the population consists of the
 

following ages of students: 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. We are now going to estimate the population mean ( by
drawing a random variable of size 2. The possible combination and their corresponding means are shown in
the table below.

Mean Age of a Sample of five Students

Sample X  
13, 14
13, 15
13.5
14.0
x̄=
13, 16 14.5
 
13, 17
14, 15
15.0
14.5 x̄=
14, 16 15.0
14, 17 15.5
15, 16 15.5
15, 17 16.0
16, 17 16.5
Sampling Distribution of Sample Means of X
the Ages of Five Students 13.5
x̄ Frequency Probability 14.0
14.5
13.5 1   1
10 =0.10 15.0
14.0 1   1
10 =0.10 14.5
2 15.0
2 10 =0.20
 
14.5 15.5
10 =0.20
2
15.0 2  
15.5

15.5 2  
10 =0.20
2
16.0
16.5
16.0 1   1 =0.10
10

Total 1   11.00=0.10
16.5 10
Standard Deviation of Ages of a
Sample of five students
Sample 𝜎
 
n-1 X Sampling Distribution of Sample
13, 14 0.71 13.5 Standard Deviation of the Ages of five
13, 15 1.41 14.0
Students
13, 16 2.12 14.5
 
𝜎
n-1
F re q u e n c y P ro b a b i l i t y
0.71 4 0.40
13, 17 2.83 15.0
1.41 3
14, 15 0.71
0.30
14.5
2.12 2 0.20
14, 16 1.41 15.0
2.83 1
14, 17 2.12 15.5 0.10
To ta l
15, 16 0.71 15.5
1.00
15, 17 1.41 16.0
16, 17 0.71 16.5
Estimation – is the process in
which sample statistic is used to
estimate the value of the
population parameter.

• Point estimate
• Internal estimate