Random variable defined as A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance










7












$begingroup$


Note: this is a homework problem so please don't give me the whole answer!



I have two variables, A and B, with normal distributions (means and variances are known). Suppose C is defined as A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance. How would I go about proving whether C is also normally distributed, and if so, what its mean and variance are?



I'm not sure how to combine the PDFs of A and B this way, but ideally if someone can point me in the right direction, my plan of attack is to derive the PDF of C and show whether it is or isn't a variation of the normal PDF.










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Perhaps see Wikipedia on 'mixture distribution'.
    $endgroup$
    – BruceET
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:21






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    A plot could give a good hint as to whether $C$ is normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – Kodiologist
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:24






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    Plotting the PDF of a few cases quickly shows $C$ usually is not Normal: it can have two modes. The fun part consists in obtaining a complete characterization of when $C$ is Normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – whuber
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:02






  • 3




    $begingroup$
    I always find it easier to work with the CDF of a random variable than the PDF.
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:49






  • 5




    $begingroup$
    And as a hint, consider drawing someone at random from the population consisting of of all babies under one year old and all NBA players. Would you expect to find anyone who's roughly four feet tall?
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:51















7












$begingroup$


Note: this is a homework problem so please don't give me the whole answer!



I have two variables, A and B, with normal distributions (means and variances are known). Suppose C is defined as A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance. How would I go about proving whether C is also normally distributed, and if so, what its mean and variance are?



I'm not sure how to combine the PDFs of A and B this way, but ideally if someone can point me in the right direction, my plan of attack is to derive the PDF of C and show whether it is or isn't a variation of the normal PDF.










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Perhaps see Wikipedia on 'mixture distribution'.
    $endgroup$
    – BruceET
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:21






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    A plot could give a good hint as to whether $C$ is normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – Kodiologist
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:24






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    Plotting the PDF of a few cases quickly shows $C$ usually is not Normal: it can have two modes. The fun part consists in obtaining a complete characterization of when $C$ is Normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – whuber
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:02






  • 3




    $begingroup$
    I always find it easier to work with the CDF of a random variable than the PDF.
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:49






  • 5




    $begingroup$
    And as a hint, consider drawing someone at random from the population consisting of of all babies under one year old and all NBA players. Would you expect to find anyone who's roughly four feet tall?
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:51













7












7








7


1



$begingroup$


Note: this is a homework problem so please don't give me the whole answer!



I have two variables, A and B, with normal distributions (means and variances are known). Suppose C is defined as A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance. How would I go about proving whether C is also normally distributed, and if so, what its mean and variance are?



I'm not sure how to combine the PDFs of A and B this way, but ideally if someone can point me in the right direction, my plan of attack is to derive the PDF of C and show whether it is or isn't a variation of the normal PDF.










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$




Note: this is a homework problem so please don't give me the whole answer!



I have two variables, A and B, with normal distributions (means and variances are known). Suppose C is defined as A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance. How would I go about proving whether C is also normally distributed, and if so, what its mean and variance are?



I'm not sure how to combine the PDFs of A and B this way, but ideally if someone can point me in the right direction, my plan of attack is to derive the PDF of C and show whether it is or isn't a variation of the normal PDF.







self-study random-variable gaussian-mixture finite-mixture-model






share|cite|improve this question















share|cite|improve this question













share|cite|improve this question




share|cite|improve this question








edited Aug 27 '18 at 20:01









whuber

205k33449816




205k33449816










asked Aug 27 '18 at 19:11









BluefireBluefire

1455




1455







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Perhaps see Wikipedia on 'mixture distribution'.
    $endgroup$
    – BruceET
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:21






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    A plot could give a good hint as to whether $C$ is normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – Kodiologist
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:24






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    Plotting the PDF of a few cases quickly shows $C$ usually is not Normal: it can have two modes. The fun part consists in obtaining a complete characterization of when $C$ is Normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – whuber
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:02






  • 3




    $begingroup$
    I always find it easier to work with the CDF of a random variable than the PDF.
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:49






  • 5




    $begingroup$
    And as a hint, consider drawing someone at random from the population consisting of of all babies under one year old and all NBA players. Would you expect to find anyone who's roughly four feet tall?
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:51












  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Perhaps see Wikipedia on 'mixture distribution'.
    $endgroup$
    – BruceET
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:21






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    A plot could give a good hint as to whether $C$ is normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – Kodiologist
    Aug 27 '18 at 19:24






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    Plotting the PDF of a few cases quickly shows $C$ usually is not Normal: it can have two modes. The fun part consists in obtaining a complete characterization of when $C$ is Normally distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – whuber
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:02






  • 3




    $begingroup$
    I always find it easier to work with the CDF of a random variable than the PDF.
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:49






  • 5




    $begingroup$
    And as a hint, consider drawing someone at random from the population consisting of of all babies under one year old and all NBA players. Would you expect to find anyone who's roughly four feet tall?
    $endgroup$
    – BallpointBen
    Aug 27 '18 at 20:51







2




2




$begingroup$
Perhaps see Wikipedia on 'mixture distribution'.
$endgroup$
– BruceET
Aug 27 '18 at 19:21




$begingroup$
Perhaps see Wikipedia on 'mixture distribution'.
$endgroup$
– BruceET
Aug 27 '18 at 19:21




6




6




$begingroup$
A plot could give a good hint as to whether $C$ is normally distributed.
$endgroup$
– Kodiologist
Aug 27 '18 at 19:24




$begingroup$
A plot could give a good hint as to whether $C$ is normally distributed.
$endgroup$
– Kodiologist
Aug 27 '18 at 19:24




4




4




$begingroup$
Plotting the PDF of a few cases quickly shows $C$ usually is not Normal: it can have two modes. The fun part consists in obtaining a complete characterization of when $C$ is Normally distributed.
$endgroup$
– whuber
Aug 27 '18 at 20:02




$begingroup$
Plotting the PDF of a few cases quickly shows $C$ usually is not Normal: it can have two modes. The fun part consists in obtaining a complete characterization of when $C$ is Normally distributed.
$endgroup$
– whuber
Aug 27 '18 at 20:02




3




3




$begingroup$
I always find it easier to work with the CDF of a random variable than the PDF.
$endgroup$
– BallpointBen
Aug 27 '18 at 20:49




$begingroup$
I always find it easier to work with the CDF of a random variable than the PDF.
$endgroup$
– BallpointBen
Aug 27 '18 at 20:49




5




5




$begingroup$
And as a hint, consider drawing someone at random from the population consisting of of all babies under one year old and all NBA players. Would you expect to find anyone who's roughly four feet tall?
$endgroup$
– BallpointBen
Aug 27 '18 at 20:51




$begingroup$
And as a hint, consider drawing someone at random from the population consisting of of all babies under one year old and all NBA players. Would you expect to find anyone who's roughly four feet tall?
$endgroup$
– BallpointBen
Aug 27 '18 at 20:51










5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes


















7












$begingroup$

Hopefully it's clear to you that C isn't guaranteed to be normal. However, part of your question was how to write down its PDF.
@BallpointBen gave you a hint. If that's not enough, here are some more spoilers...



Note that C can be written as:
$$C = T cdot A + (1-T) cdot B$$
for a Bernoulli random $T$ with $P(T=0)=P(T=1)=1/2$ with $T$ independent of $(A,B)$. This is more or less the standard mathematical translation of the English statement "C is A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance".



Now, determining the PDF of C directly from this seems hard, but you can make progress by writing down the distribution function $F_C$ of C. You can partition the event $C leq X$ into two subevents (depending on the value of $T$) to write:



$$ F_C(x) = P(C leq x) =
P(T = 0 text and C leq x) + P(T = 1text and C leq x) $$



and note that by the definition of C and the independence of T and B, you have:



$$P(T=0text and C leq x) = P(T=0text and Bleq x) = frac12P(Bleq x) = frac12 F_B(x)$$



You should be able to use a similar result in the $T=1$ case to write $F_C$ in terms of $F_A$ and $F_B$. To get the PDF of C, just differentiate $F_C$ with respect to x.






share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
    $endgroup$
    – Mees de Vries
    Aug 28 '18 at 10:13


















8












$begingroup$

Simulation of a random 50-50 mixture of $mathsfNorm(mu=90, sigma=2)$ and
$mathsfNorm(mu=100, sigma=2)$ is illustrated below. Simulation in R.



set.seed(827); m = 10^6
x1 = rnorm(m, 100, 2); x2 = rnorm(m, 90, 2)
p = rbinom(m, 1, .5)
x = x1; x[p==1] = x2[p==1]
hist(x, prob=T, col="skyblue2", main="Random 50-50 Mixture of NORM(90,2) and NORM(100,2)")
curve(.5*(dnorm(x, 100, 2) + dnorm(x, 90, 2)), add=T, col="red", lwd=2)


enter image description here






share|cite|improve this answer











$endgroup$




















    7












    $begingroup$

    One way you could work on that is to analyze it as the variance tends to 0. This way you would get a Bernoulli-like distribution, which is (clearly) not a normal distribution.






    share|cite|improve this answer









    $endgroup$








    • 1




      $begingroup$
      I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
      $endgroup$
      – André Costa
      Aug 27 '18 at 19:35






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
      $endgroup$
      – BruceET
      Aug 27 '18 at 19:43


















    1












    $begingroup$

    If the PDFs of $A$, $B$ and $C$ are $P_A(x)$, $P_B(x)$ and $P_C(x)$ respectivelly, and $alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $A$ (and $1-alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $B$), then



    $$P_C(x) = alpha P_A(x) + (1-alpha) P_B(x).$$






    share|cite|improve this answer









    $endgroup$








    • 2




      $begingroup$
      This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
      $endgroup$
      – whuber
      Aug 28 '18 at 14:33


















    1












    $begingroup$

    This is the kind of problem where it is very helpful to use the concept of the CDF, the cumulative probability distribution function, of random variables, that totally unnecessary concept that professors drag in just to confuse students who are happy to just use pdfs.



    By definition, the value of the CDF $F_X(alpha)$ of a random variable $X$ equals the probability that $X$ is no larger than the real number $alpha$, that is,
    $$F_X(alpha) = PX leq alpha, ~-infty < alpha < infty.$$
    Now, the law of total probability tells us that if $X$ is equally likely to be the same as a random variable $A$ or a random variable $B$, then
    $$PX leq alpha = frac 12 PA leq alpha + frac 12 PB leq alpha,$$
    or, in other words,
    $$F_X(alpha} = frac 12 F_A(alpha} + frac 12 F_B(alpha}.$$
    Remembering how your professor boringly nattered on and on about how for continuous random variables the pdf is the derivative of the CDF, we get that
    $$f_X(alpha} = frac 12 f_A(alpha} + frac 12 f_B(alpha} tag1$$
    which answers one of your questions. For the special case of normal random variables $A$ and $B$, can you figure out whether $(1)$ gives a normal density for $X$ or not? If you are familiar with notions such as
    $$E[X] = int_-infty^infty alpha f_X(alpha} , mathrm dalpha,
    tag2$$
    can you figure out, by substituting the right side of $(1)$ for the $f_X(alpha)$ in $(2)$ and thinking about the expression, what $E[X]$ is in terms of $E[A]$ and $E[B]$?






    share|cite|improve this answer









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      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

      votes








      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      7












      $begingroup$

      Hopefully it's clear to you that C isn't guaranteed to be normal. However, part of your question was how to write down its PDF.
      @BallpointBen gave you a hint. If that's not enough, here are some more spoilers...



      Note that C can be written as:
      $$C = T cdot A + (1-T) cdot B$$
      for a Bernoulli random $T$ with $P(T=0)=P(T=1)=1/2$ with $T$ independent of $(A,B)$. This is more or less the standard mathematical translation of the English statement "C is A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance".



      Now, determining the PDF of C directly from this seems hard, but you can make progress by writing down the distribution function $F_C$ of C. You can partition the event $C leq X$ into two subevents (depending on the value of $T$) to write:



      $$ F_C(x) = P(C leq x) =
      P(T = 0 text and C leq x) + P(T = 1text and C leq x) $$



      and note that by the definition of C and the independence of T and B, you have:



      $$P(T=0text and C leq x) = P(T=0text and Bleq x) = frac12P(Bleq x) = frac12 F_B(x)$$



      You should be able to use a similar result in the $T=1$ case to write $F_C$ in terms of $F_A$ and $F_B$. To get the PDF of C, just differentiate $F_C$ with respect to x.






      share|cite|improve this answer









      $endgroup$








      • 1




        $begingroup$
        Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
        $endgroup$
        – Mees de Vries
        Aug 28 '18 at 10:13















      7












      $begingroup$

      Hopefully it's clear to you that C isn't guaranteed to be normal. However, part of your question was how to write down its PDF.
      @BallpointBen gave you a hint. If that's not enough, here are some more spoilers...



      Note that C can be written as:
      $$C = T cdot A + (1-T) cdot B$$
      for a Bernoulli random $T$ with $P(T=0)=P(T=1)=1/2$ with $T$ independent of $(A,B)$. This is more or less the standard mathematical translation of the English statement "C is A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance".



      Now, determining the PDF of C directly from this seems hard, but you can make progress by writing down the distribution function $F_C$ of C. You can partition the event $C leq X$ into two subevents (depending on the value of $T$) to write:



      $$ F_C(x) = P(C leq x) =
      P(T = 0 text and C leq x) + P(T = 1text and C leq x) $$



      and note that by the definition of C and the independence of T and B, you have:



      $$P(T=0text and C leq x) = P(T=0text and Bleq x) = frac12P(Bleq x) = frac12 F_B(x)$$



      You should be able to use a similar result in the $T=1$ case to write $F_C$ in terms of $F_A$ and $F_B$. To get the PDF of C, just differentiate $F_C$ with respect to x.






      share|cite|improve this answer









      $endgroup$








      • 1




        $begingroup$
        Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
        $endgroup$
        – Mees de Vries
        Aug 28 '18 at 10:13













      7












      7








      7





      $begingroup$

      Hopefully it's clear to you that C isn't guaranteed to be normal. However, part of your question was how to write down its PDF.
      @BallpointBen gave you a hint. If that's not enough, here are some more spoilers...



      Note that C can be written as:
      $$C = T cdot A + (1-T) cdot B$$
      for a Bernoulli random $T$ with $P(T=0)=P(T=1)=1/2$ with $T$ independent of $(A,B)$. This is more or less the standard mathematical translation of the English statement "C is A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance".



      Now, determining the PDF of C directly from this seems hard, but you can make progress by writing down the distribution function $F_C$ of C. You can partition the event $C leq X$ into two subevents (depending on the value of $T$) to write:



      $$ F_C(x) = P(C leq x) =
      P(T = 0 text and C leq x) + P(T = 1text and C leq x) $$



      and note that by the definition of C and the independence of T and B, you have:



      $$P(T=0text and C leq x) = P(T=0text and Bleq x) = frac12P(Bleq x) = frac12 F_B(x)$$



      You should be able to use a similar result in the $T=1$ case to write $F_C$ in terms of $F_A$ and $F_B$. To get the PDF of C, just differentiate $F_C$ with respect to x.






      share|cite|improve this answer









      $endgroup$



      Hopefully it's clear to you that C isn't guaranteed to be normal. However, part of your question was how to write down its PDF.
      @BallpointBen gave you a hint. If that's not enough, here are some more spoilers...



      Note that C can be written as:
      $$C = T cdot A + (1-T) cdot B$$
      for a Bernoulli random $T$ with $P(T=0)=P(T=1)=1/2$ with $T$ independent of $(A,B)$. This is more or less the standard mathematical translation of the English statement "C is A with 50% chance and B with 50% chance".



      Now, determining the PDF of C directly from this seems hard, but you can make progress by writing down the distribution function $F_C$ of C. You can partition the event $C leq X$ into two subevents (depending on the value of $T$) to write:



      $$ F_C(x) = P(C leq x) =
      P(T = 0 text and C leq x) + P(T = 1text and C leq x) $$



      and note that by the definition of C and the independence of T and B, you have:



      $$P(T=0text and C leq x) = P(T=0text and Bleq x) = frac12P(Bleq x) = frac12 F_B(x)$$



      You should be able to use a similar result in the $T=1$ case to write $F_C$ in terms of $F_A$ and $F_B$. To get the PDF of C, just differentiate $F_C$ with respect to x.







      share|cite|improve this answer












      share|cite|improve this answer



      share|cite|improve this answer










      answered Aug 27 '18 at 20:58









      K. A. BuhrK. A. Buhr

      1861




      1861







      • 1




        $begingroup$
        Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
        $endgroup$
        – Mees de Vries
        Aug 28 '18 at 10:13












      • 1




        $begingroup$
        Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
        $endgroup$
        – Mees de Vries
        Aug 28 '18 at 10:13







      1




      1




      $begingroup$
      Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
      $endgroup$
      – Mees de Vries
      Aug 28 '18 at 10:13




      $begingroup$
      Notably, it follows from this answer that $C$ could be normal, e.g. when $A, B$ are identically distributed.
      $endgroup$
      – Mees de Vries
      Aug 28 '18 at 10:13













      8












      $begingroup$

      Simulation of a random 50-50 mixture of $mathsfNorm(mu=90, sigma=2)$ and
      $mathsfNorm(mu=100, sigma=2)$ is illustrated below. Simulation in R.



      set.seed(827); m = 10^6
      x1 = rnorm(m, 100, 2); x2 = rnorm(m, 90, 2)
      p = rbinom(m, 1, .5)
      x = x1; x[p==1] = x2[p==1]
      hist(x, prob=T, col="skyblue2", main="Random 50-50 Mixture of NORM(90,2) and NORM(100,2)")
      curve(.5*(dnorm(x, 100, 2) + dnorm(x, 90, 2)), add=T, col="red", lwd=2)


      enter image description here






      share|cite|improve this answer











      $endgroup$

















        8












        $begingroup$

        Simulation of a random 50-50 mixture of $mathsfNorm(mu=90, sigma=2)$ and
        $mathsfNorm(mu=100, sigma=2)$ is illustrated below. Simulation in R.



        set.seed(827); m = 10^6
        x1 = rnorm(m, 100, 2); x2 = rnorm(m, 90, 2)
        p = rbinom(m, 1, .5)
        x = x1; x[p==1] = x2[p==1]
        hist(x, prob=T, col="skyblue2", main="Random 50-50 Mixture of NORM(90,2) and NORM(100,2)")
        curve(.5*(dnorm(x, 100, 2) + dnorm(x, 90, 2)), add=T, col="red", lwd=2)


        enter image description here






        share|cite|improve this answer











        $endgroup$















          8












          8








          8





          $begingroup$

          Simulation of a random 50-50 mixture of $mathsfNorm(mu=90, sigma=2)$ and
          $mathsfNorm(mu=100, sigma=2)$ is illustrated below. Simulation in R.



          set.seed(827); m = 10^6
          x1 = rnorm(m, 100, 2); x2 = rnorm(m, 90, 2)
          p = rbinom(m, 1, .5)
          x = x1; x[p==1] = x2[p==1]
          hist(x, prob=T, col="skyblue2", main="Random 50-50 Mixture of NORM(90,2) and NORM(100,2)")
          curve(.5*(dnorm(x, 100, 2) + dnorm(x, 90, 2)), add=T, col="red", lwd=2)


          enter image description here






          share|cite|improve this answer











          $endgroup$



          Simulation of a random 50-50 mixture of $mathsfNorm(mu=90, sigma=2)$ and
          $mathsfNorm(mu=100, sigma=2)$ is illustrated below. Simulation in R.



          set.seed(827); m = 10^6
          x1 = rnorm(m, 100, 2); x2 = rnorm(m, 90, 2)
          p = rbinom(m, 1, .5)
          x = x1; x[p==1] = x2[p==1]
          hist(x, prob=T, col="skyblue2", main="Random 50-50 Mixture of NORM(90,2) and NORM(100,2)")
          curve(.5*(dnorm(x, 100, 2) + dnorm(x, 90, 2)), add=T, col="red", lwd=2)


          enter image description here







          share|cite|improve this answer














          share|cite|improve this answer



          share|cite|improve this answer








          edited Aug 27 '18 at 19:46

























          answered Aug 27 '18 at 19:34









          BruceETBruceET

          5,7881619




          5,7881619





















              7












              $begingroup$

              One way you could work on that is to analyze it as the variance tends to 0. This way you would get a Bernoulli-like distribution, which is (clearly) not a normal distribution.






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$








              • 1




                $begingroup$
                I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
                $endgroup$
                – André Costa
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:35






              • 1




                $begingroup$
                Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
                $endgroup$
                – BruceET
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:43















              7












              $begingroup$

              One way you could work on that is to analyze it as the variance tends to 0. This way you would get a Bernoulli-like distribution, which is (clearly) not a normal distribution.






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$








              • 1




                $begingroup$
                I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
                $endgroup$
                – André Costa
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:35






              • 1




                $begingroup$
                Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
                $endgroup$
                – BruceET
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:43













              7












              7








              7





              $begingroup$

              One way you could work on that is to analyze it as the variance tends to 0. This way you would get a Bernoulli-like distribution, which is (clearly) not a normal distribution.






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$



              One way you could work on that is to analyze it as the variance tends to 0. This way you would get a Bernoulli-like distribution, which is (clearly) not a normal distribution.







              share|cite|improve this answer












              share|cite|improve this answer



              share|cite|improve this answer










              answered Aug 27 '18 at 19:34









              André CostaAndré Costa

              1114




              1114







              • 1




                $begingroup$
                I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
                $endgroup$
                – André Costa
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:35






              • 1




                $begingroup$
                Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
                $endgroup$
                – BruceET
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:43












              • 1




                $begingroup$
                I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
                $endgroup$
                – André Costa
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:35






              • 1




                $begingroup$
                Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
                $endgroup$
                – BruceET
                Aug 27 '18 at 19:43







              1




              1




              $begingroup$
              I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
              $endgroup$
              – André Costa
              Aug 27 '18 at 19:35




              $begingroup$
              I didn't post is as a comment because I don't have enough reputation
              $endgroup$
              – André Costa
              Aug 27 '18 at 19:35




              1




              1




              $begingroup$
              Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
              $endgroup$
              – BruceET
              Aug 27 '18 at 19:43




              $begingroup$
              Nevertheless, a good suggestion. (+1)
              $endgroup$
              – BruceET
              Aug 27 '18 at 19:43











              1












              $begingroup$

              If the PDFs of $A$, $B$ and $C$ are $P_A(x)$, $P_B(x)$ and $P_C(x)$ respectivelly, and $alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $A$ (and $1-alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $B$), then



              $$P_C(x) = alpha P_A(x) + (1-alpha) P_B(x).$$






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$








              • 2




                $begingroup$
                This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
                $endgroup$
                – whuber
                Aug 28 '18 at 14:33















              1












              $begingroup$

              If the PDFs of $A$, $B$ and $C$ are $P_A(x)$, $P_B(x)$ and $P_C(x)$ respectivelly, and $alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $A$ (and $1-alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $B$), then



              $$P_C(x) = alpha P_A(x) + (1-alpha) P_B(x).$$






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$








              • 2




                $begingroup$
                This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
                $endgroup$
                – whuber
                Aug 28 '18 at 14:33













              1












              1








              1





              $begingroup$

              If the PDFs of $A$, $B$ and $C$ are $P_A(x)$, $P_B(x)$ and $P_C(x)$ respectivelly, and $alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $A$ (and $1-alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $B$), then



              $$P_C(x) = alpha P_A(x) + (1-alpha) P_B(x).$$






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$



              If the PDFs of $A$, $B$ and $C$ are $P_A(x)$, $P_B(x)$ and $P_C(x)$ respectivelly, and $alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $A$ (and $1-alpha$ is the chance that $C$ is defined as $B$), then



              $$P_C(x) = alpha P_A(x) + (1-alpha) P_B(x).$$







              share|cite|improve this answer












              share|cite|improve this answer



              share|cite|improve this answer










              answered Aug 28 '18 at 14:29









              HelloGoodbyeHelloGoodbye

              28929




              28929







              • 2




                $begingroup$
                This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
                $endgroup$
                – whuber
                Aug 28 '18 at 14:33












              • 2




                $begingroup$
                This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
                $endgroup$
                – whuber
                Aug 28 '18 at 14:33







              2




              2




              $begingroup$
              This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
              $endgroup$
              – whuber
              Aug 28 '18 at 14:33




              $begingroup$
              This is a good point, but don't you think it would help more to explain why this result holds, instead of just asserting it? Could you offer a simple or clear or intuitive explanation?
              $endgroup$
              – whuber
              Aug 28 '18 at 14:33











              1












              $begingroup$

              This is the kind of problem where it is very helpful to use the concept of the CDF, the cumulative probability distribution function, of random variables, that totally unnecessary concept that professors drag in just to confuse students who are happy to just use pdfs.



              By definition, the value of the CDF $F_X(alpha)$ of a random variable $X$ equals the probability that $X$ is no larger than the real number $alpha$, that is,
              $$F_X(alpha) = PX leq alpha, ~-infty < alpha < infty.$$
              Now, the law of total probability tells us that if $X$ is equally likely to be the same as a random variable $A$ or a random variable $B$, then
              $$PX leq alpha = frac 12 PA leq alpha + frac 12 PB leq alpha,$$
              or, in other words,
              $$F_X(alpha} = frac 12 F_A(alpha} + frac 12 F_B(alpha}.$$
              Remembering how your professor boringly nattered on and on about how for continuous random variables the pdf is the derivative of the CDF, we get that
              $$f_X(alpha} = frac 12 f_A(alpha} + frac 12 f_B(alpha} tag1$$
              which answers one of your questions. For the special case of normal random variables $A$ and $B$, can you figure out whether $(1)$ gives a normal density for $X$ or not? If you are familiar with notions such as
              $$E[X] = int_-infty^infty alpha f_X(alpha} , mathrm dalpha,
              tag2$$
              can you figure out, by substituting the right side of $(1)$ for the $f_X(alpha)$ in $(2)$ and thinking about the expression, what $E[X]$ is in terms of $E[A]$ and $E[B]$?






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$

















                1












                $begingroup$

                This is the kind of problem where it is very helpful to use the concept of the CDF, the cumulative probability distribution function, of random variables, that totally unnecessary concept that professors drag in just to confuse students who are happy to just use pdfs.



                By definition, the value of the CDF $F_X(alpha)$ of a random variable $X$ equals the probability that $X$ is no larger than the real number $alpha$, that is,
                $$F_X(alpha) = PX leq alpha, ~-infty < alpha < infty.$$
                Now, the law of total probability tells us that if $X$ is equally likely to be the same as a random variable $A$ or a random variable $B$, then
                $$PX leq alpha = frac 12 PA leq alpha + frac 12 PB leq alpha,$$
                or, in other words,
                $$F_X(alpha} = frac 12 F_A(alpha} + frac 12 F_B(alpha}.$$
                Remembering how your professor boringly nattered on and on about how for continuous random variables the pdf is the derivative of the CDF, we get that
                $$f_X(alpha} = frac 12 f_A(alpha} + frac 12 f_B(alpha} tag1$$
                which answers one of your questions. For the special case of normal random variables $A$ and $B$, can you figure out whether $(1)$ gives a normal density for $X$ or not? If you are familiar with notions such as
                $$E[X] = int_-infty^infty alpha f_X(alpha} , mathrm dalpha,
                tag2$$
                can you figure out, by substituting the right side of $(1)$ for the $f_X(alpha)$ in $(2)$ and thinking about the expression, what $E[X]$ is in terms of $E[A]$ and $E[B]$?






                share|cite|improve this answer









                $endgroup$















                  1












                  1








                  1





                  $begingroup$

                  This is the kind of problem where it is very helpful to use the concept of the CDF, the cumulative probability distribution function, of random variables, that totally unnecessary concept that professors drag in just to confuse students who are happy to just use pdfs.



                  By definition, the value of the CDF $F_X(alpha)$ of a random variable $X$ equals the probability that $X$ is no larger than the real number $alpha$, that is,
                  $$F_X(alpha) = PX leq alpha, ~-infty < alpha < infty.$$
                  Now, the law of total probability tells us that if $X$ is equally likely to be the same as a random variable $A$ or a random variable $B$, then
                  $$PX leq alpha = frac 12 PA leq alpha + frac 12 PB leq alpha,$$
                  or, in other words,
                  $$F_X(alpha} = frac 12 F_A(alpha} + frac 12 F_B(alpha}.$$
                  Remembering how your professor boringly nattered on and on about how for continuous random variables the pdf is the derivative of the CDF, we get that
                  $$f_X(alpha} = frac 12 f_A(alpha} + frac 12 f_B(alpha} tag1$$
                  which answers one of your questions. For the special case of normal random variables $A$ and $B$, can you figure out whether $(1)$ gives a normal density for $X$ or not? If you are familiar with notions such as
                  $$E[X] = int_-infty^infty alpha f_X(alpha} , mathrm dalpha,
                  tag2$$
                  can you figure out, by substituting the right side of $(1)$ for the $f_X(alpha)$ in $(2)$ and thinking about the expression, what $E[X]$ is in terms of $E[A]$ and $E[B]$?






                  share|cite|improve this answer









                  $endgroup$



                  This is the kind of problem where it is very helpful to use the concept of the CDF, the cumulative probability distribution function, of random variables, that totally unnecessary concept that professors drag in just to confuse students who are happy to just use pdfs.



                  By definition, the value of the CDF $F_X(alpha)$ of a random variable $X$ equals the probability that $X$ is no larger than the real number $alpha$, that is,
                  $$F_X(alpha) = PX leq alpha, ~-infty < alpha < infty.$$
                  Now, the law of total probability tells us that if $X$ is equally likely to be the same as a random variable $A$ or a random variable $B$, then
                  $$PX leq alpha = frac 12 PA leq alpha + frac 12 PB leq alpha,$$
                  or, in other words,
                  $$F_X(alpha} = frac 12 F_A(alpha} + frac 12 F_B(alpha}.$$
                  Remembering how your professor boringly nattered on and on about how for continuous random variables the pdf is the derivative of the CDF, we get that
                  $$f_X(alpha} = frac 12 f_A(alpha} + frac 12 f_B(alpha} tag1$$
                  which answers one of your questions. For the special case of normal random variables $A$ and $B$, can you figure out whether $(1)$ gives a normal density for $X$ or not? If you are familiar with notions such as
                  $$E[X] = int_-infty^infty alpha f_X(alpha} , mathrm dalpha,
                  tag2$$
                  can you figure out, by substituting the right side of $(1)$ for the $f_X(alpha)$ in $(2)$ and thinking about the expression, what $E[X]$ is in terms of $E[A]$ and $E[B]$?







                  share|cite|improve this answer












                  share|cite|improve this answer



                  share|cite|improve this answer










                  answered Aug 28 '18 at 23:21









                  Dilip SarwateDilip Sarwate

                  30.6k253148




                  30.6k253148



























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