Variance

and Standard Deviation

Now You Try!


For the following questions find the mean, variance, and standard deviations of the discrete probability distributions.

1) A survey was taken of the number of daily newspapers a person reads perday. Find the mean, variance, and standard deviation of the distribution.

\(X\) 0 1 2 3
\(P(X)\) 0.42 0.35 0.20 0.03


2) The probabilities that a player will get 5 to 10 questions right on a trivia quiz are shown below. Find the mean, variance, and standard deviation for the distribution.

\(X\) 5 6 7 8 9 10
\(P(X)\) 0.05 0.20 0.40 0.10 0.15 0.10


3) A contractor has four new home plans. Plan 1 is a home with six windows. Plan 2is a home with seven windows. Plan 3 has eight windows, and plan 4 has nine windows. The probability distribution for the sale of the homes is shown. Find the mean, variance, and standard deviation for the number of windows in the homes that the contractor builds.

\(X\) 6 7 8 9
\(P(X)\) 0.30 0.40 0.25 0.05