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A fair die is tossed and let the random variable $X$ be the number that appears. Deduce that $ \mathbb E(X^3)=\frac{1^3+2^3+3^3+4^3+5^3+6^3}6. $ First of all, I would like to know the probability distribution of this random variable $X$.

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    If you want to cube things you can just add a "$^$" character in between the two things. I'll edit your question so that you can look at it. Where it says "edited n mins ago by", you can click on the link on "mins ago" to see what was edited.2011-12-22

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$X$ takes the values $1$, $2$, $3$ ,$4$, $5$, and $6$ (assuming a six-sided die). Since the die is fair, outcomes are equally likely; so $X$ takes the value $i$ with probability $1/6$ for each $i=1, 2,3,4,5,6$.

The probability distribution of $X$ is therefore $ p_X(i)=\textstyle{1\over 6},\quad i=1, 2, \ldots, 6. $

As a warm up to your problem, let's find $\Bbb E(X)$. The expected value of $X$ is

$ \Bbb E(X)=\sum_{i=1}^6 \,i\, p_X(i)= 1\cdot {1\over6}+2\cdot {1\over6}+3\cdot {1\over6}+4\cdot {1\over6} +5\cdot {1\over6}+6 \cdot {1\over6}=3.5. $

To find the expected value of a function of $X$, you could use the following fact:

Fact: For a discrete variable $X$ that takes the values $x_1, x_2,\ldots,x_n$, the expectation of a function $h(X)$ of $X$ is

$\Bbb E\bigl(h(X)\bigr) =\sum_{i=1}^n h(x_i) p_X(x_i).$

To find $\Bbb E(X^3)$, we apply the above fact with $h(x)=x^3$: $ \Bbb E( X^3)=\sum_{i=1}^6\, i^3 p_X(i)= ( 1)^3\cdot {1\over6}+( 2)^3\cdot {1\over6}+( 3)^3\cdot {1\over6}+( 4)^3\cdot {1\over6} +( 5)^3\cdot {1\over6}+( 6)^3 \cdot {1\over6} . $

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    thanks David , I realize the question is wrong set2011-12-22