What is the expected value of the sum of two rolls of a six sided die?
1 Answer
Explanation:
Intuitively we would expect the sum of a single die to be the average of the possible outcomes, ie:
#S= (1+2+3+4+5+6)/6 = 3.5 #
And so we would predict the sum of a two die to be twice that of one die, ie we would predict the expected value to be
If we consider the possible outcomes from the throw of two dice:
And so if we define
So then we compute the expected value, using
# E(X) = sum x(P(X)=x) #
# \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ = 2 * 1/36 + 3 * 2/36 + 4 * 3/36 + 5 * 4/36 #
# \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ + 6 * 5/36 + 7 * 6/36 + 8 * 5/36 + 9 * 4/36 #
# \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ + 10 * 3/36 + 11 * 2/36 + 12 * 1/36 #
# \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ = (2+6+12+20+30+42+40+36+30+22+12)/36 #
# \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ = (252)/36 #
# \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ = 7 #