Deriving Mean and Variance of Laplace Distribution
Deriving Mean and Variance of Laplace Distribution
Deriving Mean and Variance of Laplace Distribution
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DerivingMeanandVarianceofLaplaceDistribution
IthasbeenalongtimesinceIhaveusedcalculus,andIamtryingtounderstandhowthemeanandvarianceoftheLaplace
distributionwithpdf
|x|
f (x|, ) =
e
2
arederived.
andVar[X ]
= 2
,butIdon'tunderstandhowthathappens.
Manythanks.
(calculus ) (integration) (statistics ) (probabilitydistributions ) (improperintegrals )
editedSep7'14at15:57
askedSep7'14at14:31
TunkFey
21.3k
YourdistributionappearstobejustthetypicalLaplacedistribution,soI'veremoved'generalized'fromthe
titlewhileeditingtherestintoMathjaxform.TheremaybegeneralizedLaplacedistributions,butthisisn'tit.
SemiclassicalSep7'14at14:37
3Answers
Letu
,thenwehavex
anddx
= x
= u +
= du
.Bylinearitywehave
,hence
|u|
1
E[X ] =
2
0
ue
du +
ue du +
2 0
ue
du +
setu=u
1
=
ue
2 0
du +
ue
2 0
du +
and
E[X
] = E[(U + ) ]
2
= E[U
= E[U
] + 2 E[U ] +
] + 2 E[X ] +
|u|
u e
2
0
du +
1
1
2
u e du +
2
2 0
u
2
u e
du +
setu=u
1
=
2 0
u e
1
du +
u
2
u e du +
0
setv=
= 2
2 0
v e
0
2
+ ,
dv +
u
2
u e
du +
tour
help
Here'showitworks:
Signup
IknowthatE[X ]
login
NonNormal
60
96
38
where
(n + 1) =
v e
dv = n!
fornnatural number.
Thus
Var[X ] = E[X
] (E[X ])
answeredSep7'14at15:53
TunkFey
21.3k
60
96
Thankyoufortakingthetimetogothroughitstepbystep.Ineedtogetbetteratrecognizingwhento
RecallthatthesupportofaLaplaceDistributedrandomvariableX istherealline,sowehave
toevaluatethefollowingintegral:
E [X ] =
xf X (x)dx =
|x|/
dx
Ithinkthatitistheabsolutevaluethatisconfusingyouhere,yes?
Thesolutionwouldbetosplititinto(disjoint)partswherethesignchanges,thatisgetridof
theabsolutevalueandevaluatethemseparately:
1
x
|x|/
dx =
dx +
dx
Youcannowproceedbyemployingintegrationbypartsoneachintegral.Thisshouldgiveyou
themean.
ForthevarianceyoualsoneedtousethesamemethodandevaluateE[X ].Youmaythenuse
thevarianceformula:var(X ) = E[X ] [E[X ]] toobtainyourotherresult.
2
Hopethishelps.
answeredSep7'14at15:08
JohnK
2,209
11
24
Thatmakessense.I'vebeentryingtobrushuponmyintegration,butIkeptrunningintoissuesandgetting
Standardizingthedistributionwillmakethecalculationsmuchsimpler.LetY
thenthePDFofY is
= (X )/
1 |y|
f Y (y) = f X ( + y)
[ + y] =
e
.
2
dy
Hence
E[X ] = E[ + Y ] = + E[Y ].
Butnotethat
andyf
Y (y)
ye
dy = (2) < ,
y=0
isanoddfunction,henceE[Y ]
= 0
andE[X ]
Similarly,thevarianceisbestobtainedthroughY :itisasimplemattertocomputethesecond
momentofY ,sincetheintegrandisanevenfunction:
E[Y
1
] =
2 y=
|y|
y e
dy =
y e
dy = (3) = 2.
y=0
Consequently,
2
Var[X ] = E[(X ) ] =
E[Y
] = 2
editedSep7'14at16:28
answeredSep7'14at16:15
heropup
43k
36
79