Then candidates for a job have been ranked 1,2,3,...,n.

Let X the rank of a randomly

selected candidate, so that X has:

1
𝑥 = 1,2,3 … 𝑛
P(x) = { 𝑛
0 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒

(this is called the discrete uniform distribution). Compute E(X) and V(X) using the shortcut
𝑛(𝑛+1)
formula. [Hint: The sum of the first n positive integers is 2 , whereas the sum of their
𝑛(𝑛+1)(2𝑛+1)
squares is .]
6

1 1 1 𝑛(𝑛+1) 𝑛+1
E(x) = ∑𝑛𝑥=1 𝑥 ∗ 𝑛 = 𝑛 ∑𝑛𝑥=1 𝑥 = 𝑛 ∗ =
2 2

1 1 1 𝑛(𝑛+1)(2𝑛+1) (𝑛+1)(2𝑛+1) 2𝑛2 +3𝑛+1

E(𝑥 2 ) = ∑𝑛𝑥=1 𝑥 2 ∗ 𝑛 = 𝑛 ∑𝑛𝑥=1 𝑥 2 = 𝑛 ∗ = =
6 6 6

Tenemos que para calcular V(x) es:

V(x) = E(𝑥 2 ) - [𝐸(𝑥)]2 , tenemos que:

2𝑛2 +3𝑛+1 𝑛+1 2 2𝑛2 +3𝑛+1 𝑛2 +2𝑛+1 4∗(2𝑛2 +3𝑛+1)−6∗(𝑛2 +2𝑛+1)

V(x) = - [ ] = -[ ]= =
6 2 6 4 24

8𝑛2 +12𝑛+4−6𝑛2 −12𝑛−6 2𝑛2 −2 2(𝑛2 −1) 𝑛2 −1

= = = .
24 24 24 12