a teacher asks her students to write down the number of hours studied, rounded to the nearest half hour. she…

a teacher asks her students to write down the number of hours studied, rounded to the nearest half hour. she compiles the results and develops the probability distribution below for a randomly selected student. what is the mean of the probability distribution?\n\nprobability distribution\n| hours studied: x | probability: p(x) |\n| ---- | ---- |\n| 0.5 | 0.07 |\n| 1 | 0.2 |\n| 1.5 | 0.46 |\n| 2 | 0.2 |\n| 2.5 | 0.07 |\n\n0.20\n0.46\n0.85\n1.50
Answer
Explanation:
Step1: Recall mean formula
The mean $\mu$ of a probability - distribution is given by $\mu=\sum_{i}x_{i}P(x_{i})$, where $x_{i}$ are the values of the random variable and $P(x_{i})$ are their corresponding probabilities.
Step2: Calculate product for each pair
For $x_1 = 0.5$ and $P(x_1)=0.07$, the product is $0.5\times0.07 = 0.035$. For $x_2 = 1$ and $P(x_2)=0.2$, the product is $1\times0.2=0.2$. For $x_3 = 1.5$ and $P(x_3)=0.46$, the product is $1.5\times0.46 = 0.69$. For $x_4 = 2$ and $P(x_4)=0.2$, the product is $2\times0.2 = 0.4$. For $x_5 = 2.5$ and $P(x_5)=0.07$, the product is $2.5\times0.07=0.175$.
Step3: Sum up the products
$\mu=0.035 + 0.2+0.69+0.4 + 0.175=1.5$.
Answer:
1.50