In: Math
1. Suppose that X is a Geometric r.v. and its pmf is
f(x; p) = p(1 − p) x−1 , x = 1, 2, . . . and 0 ≤ p ≤ 1.
a. Calculate the mean of X.
b. Calculate the median of X.
c. Check and show whether the median is smaller than mean.
a) The mean here is computed as:
Multiplying both sides by (1-p), we get here:
Subtracting the last equation from the second last one, we get here:
Cancelling out p from both sides, we get here:
therefore 1/p is the required mean of X here.
b) Let the median be M, then we have here:
This is the required median for X here.
c) Let us define a function K as:
K = Mean - Median
Differentiating K with respect to p, we get here:
As the first derivate of K is less than 0, therefore this is a decreasing function in p.
For p = 0.1, we have:
Therefore for p = 0.1, Mean > Median
For p = 0.99,
Again for p = 0.99, Mean > Median
Therefore we can conclude here that the mean is greater than the median.