Original practice · fully worked
Original variant: network links and alert bursts
At a monitoring center, X is the number of backup links available at the start of a shift and Y is the number of alert bursts during that shift; each takes values 0, 1, or 2. With rows indexed by Y and columns by X, the joint probability matrix is (1/20)[[4,2,1],[2,4,2],[1,2,2]]. Calculate Var(Y)/Var(Y given X=1).
- A
0.50 - B
0.59 - C
0.81 - D
1.18 - E
1.40
Answer and calculation
The row totals give a marginal variance of 0.59, while normalizing the middle column gives a conditional variance of 0.50. Dividing them yields 1.18, which is choice D.
Setup
Setup
Sum each row of the joint matrix to obtain the distribution of Y.
Pr(Y=0,1,2)=(0.35,0.40,0.25) E[Y]=0.90,E[Y2]=1.40 Model
Model
The X=1 column has weights 2, 4, and 2, so normalize them by their total of 8.
Pr(Y=0,1,2∣X=1)=(0.25,0.50,0.25) E[Y∣X=1]=1,E[Y2∣X=1]=1.5 Compute
Compute
Calculate both variances and form the ratio.
Var(Y)=1.40−(0.90)2=0.59 Var(Y∣X=1)=1.50−12=0.50 0.500.59=1.18 Answer
Answer
The ratio is listed in choice D.
1.18(D)