Distinguishing Continuous and Discrete Random Variables

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 illustrate random variables and

 distinguish between a discrete and a continuous random variable.

Before you proceed with this lesson, you should be able to identify the elements of a set and the domain and the range of a
function.

Identifying the Elements of a Set

 Consider the set of colors in a rainbow. The elements of that set are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
All of those elements constitute the sample space of that set.

Domain and Range of a Function

 Recall that the domain of a function is the set of values of x while the range is the set of values of y. For example, the set
of ordered pairs {(2,5),(3,7),(4,9),(5,11)} is a function with domain {2,3,4,5} and range {5,7,9,11}

Learn about it!

A random variable is a function whose domain is the sample space of a random experiment, and the range of values is the set of
real numbers.

Example
Consider a random experiment of tossing a fair coin three times. In this scenario, the domain can be defined as the set of all
possible outcomes of the experiment and the range of the random variable as the total number of tails that comes out after tossing
a coin three times.

Let Y be the number of tails in the tossing of fair coin three times (the random variable).

The set of possible outcomes (domain) of the experiment is as follows:

{HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT}

For each element in the domain, there is a corresponding value for the random variable Y.The specific value of a random variable
is denoted by small letter y. The domain and range of the random variable Y are shown in the table below:

.
Therefore, the possible values of the random variable are 0, 1, 2, 3.

Learn about it!

Random variables are classified as either discrete or continuous.

A discrete random variable is a random variable whose set of all possible values are countable or infinitely countable. It can be
represented as separate points on a number line.

The following are examples of discrete random variables:

 the number of correct answers in a 5-item true or false quiz

 the number of siblings of your classmates
 the number of people in each country

A continuous random variable is a random variable whose set of all possible values are not countable or infinite. It can be
represented as an interval.

The following are examples of continuous random variables:

 the height of each student in a class

 the weight of each plane baggage
 the waiting time before a person gets a taxi in a taxi stand

Explore
Consider the place where you are right now, be it a classroom, living room, or a library. Can you name one discrete random
variable and one continuous random variable related to the things that you can see? How do you get the values of those random
variables?

Try it!
Determine whether the following variables is discrete or continuous.

1. number of leaves of a 10-week old plant

2. amount of time rendered in using social media applications
3. temperature of air in different times of the day
4. rating of an employee in a 10-point scale
5. number of coins in a piggy bank

Try it! Answers

1. It is a discrete variable because the number of leaves can only be represented by a whole number.
2. It is a continuous variable because the amount of time can be any value within a certain range. Thus, its possibilities
cannot be counted.
3. It is a continuous variable because air temperature can be any value within a range. Thus, it cannot be represented by a
whole number alone.
4. It is a discrete variable because the rating can be just the whole numbers from 1 to 10.
5. It is a discrete variable because the number of coins are countable. Hence, it will be represented by a whole number.
Tip
There are cases of discrete random variables that may have infinite values. For instance, the experiment is counting the number of
sand in beaches. Although it would be impractical and senseless to conduct that experiment, the kind of random variable it would
generate is still discrete.

Key Points
 Random variable is a function that takes on all the possible outcomes of an experiment and assigns for each of them a
corresponding real number.
 Discrete random variables are countable or countably infinite.
 Continuous random variables are not countable or infinite.

Name: _____________________________________________________SCORE:______________________

Distinguishing Continuous and Discrete Random Variables

1. Which of the following is not a random variable?
a. The number of teachers in each school in the Philippines
b. The time it takes for each student to finish an exam
c. The amount of water drank by each student every day
d. The number of babies born on 2015 in the Philippines
2. Which of the following is a random variable whose possible values can be counted?
a. Discreet
b. Continuous
c. Continues
d. discrete
3. Which of the following is a random variable whose possible values cannot be counted?
a. Continuous
b. Continues
c. Discreet
d. discrete
4. Which of the following is the domain of a random variable?
a. sample space of the experiment
b. subset of the outcomes of the experiment
c. set of whole numbers
d. set of real numbers
5. Which of the following are examples of a discrete random variable?
a. cars of each family
b. scholars per class
c. time spent studying per day
d. tax paid by each employee
6. Which of the following are examples of continuous random variable?
a. number of houses per square kilometer
b. general weighted average of each student in your class
c. pens per student
d. age of the teachers in your school
7. Which of the following can be a representation of the values of a discrete random variable?
a. {6}
b. (7, ∞)
c. (5, 10)
d. {1, 2, 3, 4, . . . }
8. Which of the following instruments can be used to find the values of a continuous random variable?
a. Clicker
b. weighing scale
c. tally sheet
d. tape measure
9. Which of the following statements is true?
a. The set of numbers between 1 and 5 is a discrete random variable.
b. The number of stars in each of the galaxy in the universe is a continuous random variable.
c. The amount of blood in each person is a discrete random variable.
d. The take-home salary of each person in the company is a continuous random variable.
10. Which of the following statements about discrete random variables is false?
a. A discrete random variable can take on negative values.
 b. A discrete random variable can have more than 1000 possible values.
c. A discrete random variable can have infinite possible values.
d. A discrete random variable may have only one possible value.

Constructing Probability Mass Function and Computing for the Probability of a Random Variable
1. What do you call a random variable that involves a finite number of outcomes?
a. Finite
b. Continuous
c. Discrete
d. infinite
2. What is the graph of probability mass function called?
a. bar graph
b. Histogram
c. pie chart
d. probability polygon
3. Which of the following statements is true?
a. The range of the probabilities in a probability mass function is 0 to 0.6.
b. The range of the probabilities in a probability mass function is 0 to 0.4.
c. The range of the probabilities in a probability mass function is 0 to 0.8.
d. The range of the probabilities in a probability mass function is 0 to 1.
4. What is the probability of drawing a king from a deck of card?
a. 1/52
a. 1/13 b. 1/26
c. 1/4
5.
6. A certain experiment has three possible events. The probability of Event 1 is twice the probability
of Event 3. If the probability of Event 2 is 0.43, what is the probability of Event 3?

7.

8.
9.

10.