COMM 217 Chapter 5: CHAPTER 5 - DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS.docx

• School: Concordia University
• Department: Commerce
• Course: COMM 217
• Professor: Fassil Nebebe

Document Summary

Learning objectives: be able to calculate and interpret the expected value of a discrete random variable, be able to apply the binominal distribution to business decision-making situations. Random variable: takes on different numerical values based on chance of some event Can only assume a finite number of values or an infinite sequence of values such as 0, Continuous random variable: can assume an uncountable infinite number of values. Many possible outcomes: number of complaints per day, number of tvs in a household, number of rings before the phone is answered. Only 2 possible outcomes: gender: male or female, defective item: yes or no, game result: won or lost. Expected value: the mean of a probability distribution, the average value when the experiment that generates values for the random variable is repeated over the long run. P(x)-> prob. of the random variable taking on the value x.