Variables

                                                                                                               
What are Variables?

A variable is something which always varies. That is it does not have a fixed value. In any situation if we are not sure of a value for a quantity then we represent such things using alphabets like x, y, z, a, b, c etc known as variables.

Let’s assume that Peter is working in a hotel and earns $12 per hour and on top of his hourly wage he also get tips for each hour. This expression $(12 + x) would give how much peter earn in a given hour. Here x denotes the tips earned. Now, you might also realize that number of tips or the amount of tips Peter make per might change dramatically from hour to hour. It varies consistently. Since, we are not sure of the tips Peter make each hour exactly, this value is called a variable.

Random Variables

In this section i will introduce you to the concept of a random variable. For me this is something I had lot of trouble for getting my head around. That’s really because it called variable. Generally, variable are unknowns used in algebraic equations/ expressions.

For example: x + 2 = 15. We can find the value of x, by subtracting 2 from both sides.
Or if we have an equation in two unknowns that is y = 2x + 5, here x is an independent quantity and y is a dependent quantity. So, we can assume any x value and find respective value for y. In this case we will have infinite combinations of x and y satisfying the equation.

A random variable is kind of same thing that it can take multiple values but it is not something which you really ever solve for. A random variable is usually denoted by a capital letters say X. It can take bunch of different values but we are never solving for it. In fact it a function that maps from you from the world of random processes to the actual numbers. Let us see one example.

Let the random process be it is going to rain tomorrow or not. Now, how are we going to quantify this, let say X = 1 if it rains tomorrow and X = 0 if does not rain. It is not compulsory that we have to use 1 and 0. Here we can assign to any number. So, we need to keep in mind is a random variable is not a traditional variable.

It is defined as a numerical value to each outcome of a particular experiment. For every element of an experiment’s sample space, it can take only one value. When a random variable can take finite (countable) finite set of outcomes then it is known as discrete random variable. Individual outcomes for a random variable are denoted by lower case letters. A continuous random variable would take on any of the countless number of values in the given line interval.