Statistics

willster459

New member
Joined
May 28, 2010
Messages
3
Suppose x is a random variable best described by a uniform probability distribution in which c=10 and d=30. f(x) is 0.05, the mean is 20, and the standard deviation is 5.77.

Find the probabilities of each.

P(10?x?25)

P(20<x<30)

P(x?25)

P(x?10)

P(x?25)

P(20.5?x?25.5)
 
The probabilities will be the area of rectangles with a height of .05 and length given by the interval in question.
 
The uniform distribution is a rectangle. That is what makes it easy to deal with. The probability is uniform across the distribution.

Take P(20<x<30). The entire rectangle ranges from 10 to 30. The area of the whole rectangle is 1, as it should be.

20 to 30 is half of the rectangle, so P(20<x<30)=.50

How about \(\displaystyle P(10\leq x\leq 25)\)?. How much area is this. (25-10)=15, 30-10=20

15/20=.75

Or think of it as the rectangle having a height of .05 and the length of what is given. \(\displaystyle \underbrace{.05}_{\text{f(x)}}(25-10)=.75\)

Now, see what to do?. Do the others.

The mean of a uniform distribution is \(\displaystyle \mu=\frac{c+d}{2}=\frac{30+10}{2}=20\). Just as they gave.

The standard deviation is \(\displaystyle \sigma=\sqrt{\frac{1}{12}(d-c)^{2}}=\sqrt{\frac{1}{12}(30-10)^{2}}=5.77\). Just as they gave.

Here is a Minitab graph of P(20<x<30):
 

Attachments

  • uniform.gif
    uniform.gif
    6.3 KB · Views: 361
Top