Probability mass function

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The graph of a probability mass function. All the values of this function must be non-negative and sum up to 1.

In probability theory, a probability mass function (abbreviated pmf) is a function that gives the probability that a discrete random variable is exactly equal to some value. A pmf differs from a probability density function (abbreviated pdf) in that the values of a pdf, defined only for continuous random variables, are not probabilities as such. Instead, the integral of a pdf over a range of possible values (a, b] gives the probability of the random variable falling within that range.

[edit] Mathematical description

The probability mass function of a fair die. All the numbers on the die have an equal chance of appearing on top when the die is rolled.

Suppose that X is a discrete random variable, taking values on some countable sample space  S ⊆ R. Then the probability mass function  f_X(x)  for X is given by

Note that this explicitly defines  f_X(x)  for all real numbers, including all values in R that X could never take; indeed, it assigns such values a probability of zero.

The discontinuity of probability mass functions reflects the fact that the cumulative distribution function of a discrete random variable is also discontinuous. Where it is differentiable (i.e. where x ∈ R\S) the derivative is zero, just as the probability mass function is zero at all such points.

[edit] Example

Suppose that X is the outcome of a single coin toss, assigning 0 to tails and 1 to heads. The probability that X = x is 0.5 on the state space {0, 1} (this is a Bernoulli random variable), and hence the probability mass function is

[edit] See also

• Discrete probability distribution