CDP of a function of a continuous RV

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter IniquiTrance
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Continuous Function
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
4 replies · 2K views
IniquiTrance
Messages
185
Reaction score
0
REVISED: Expectation of a function of a continuous RV

Given:

[tex]f_{X}(x)=1[/tex]

[tex]0 \leq x \leq 1[/tex]

and 0 everywhere else.

We are asked to find E[eX]

The way my book does it is as follows:
page 191 in A First Course in Probability 8th ed by Sheldon Ross said:
[tex]Y = e^{X}[/tex]

[tex]F_{Y}(x) = P(X\leq Ln (x)) = \int_{0}^{ln x} f_{Y}(y) dy = ln (x)[/tex]

[tex]f_{Y}(x) = \frac{d}{dx} \left[ln (x)\right]=\frac{1}{x}[/tex]

[tex]1 \leq x \leq e[/tex]

[tex]E[e^{X}] = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} x f_{Y}(x) dx = \int_{1}^{e} dx = e - 1[/tex]

I understand how to do it as follows. I don't understand the author's way of doing it.

[tex]Y = e^{X}[/tex]

[tex]0 \leq x \leq 1[/tex]

[tex]1 \leq y \leq e[/tex]

[tex]F_{Y}(y) = P(X\leq Ln (y)) = \int_{0}^{ln y} f_{X}(x) dx = \int_{0}^{ln y} dx = ln (y)[/tex]

[tex]f_{Y}(y) = \frac{d}{dy} \left[ln (y)\right]=\frac{1}{y}[/tex]

[tex]E[e^{X}] = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} y f_{Y}(y) dy = \int_{1}^{e} dy = e - 1[/tex]

Can someone please explain to me why the author does it his way instead of mine?

I know I can make life easier by just taking:

[tex]\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}g(x)f(x) dx[/tex]

but I want to understand what's going on here.

Any help is much appreciated!
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
Any ideas? Sorry to bump, just redid the whole post, so it's essentially a new question :).
 
A general rule if you're given [tex]f_{X}(x)[/tex] to calculate [tex]E[g(X)][/tex] is:


[tex] E[g(X)] = \int{g(x) \, f_{X}(x) \, dx}[/tex]
 
Dickfore said:
A general rule if you're given [tex]f_{X}(x)[/tex] to calculate [tex]E[g(X)][/tex] is:


[tex] E[g(X)] = \int{g(x) \, f_{X}(x) \, dx}[/tex]

Yeah, I noted that I'm aware of that at the bottom of my post. :smile:

I just want to understand why the book does it this way.
 
IniquiTrance said:
Yeah, I noted that I'm aware of that at the bottom of my post. :smile:

I just want to understand why the book does it this way.

I think the book did it the same way as you, but used a different dummy variable in the last integral.