Bernoulli random variable

In probability theory and statistics, the Bernoulli distribution, named after Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli,James Victor Uspensky: ''Introduction to Mathematical Probability'', McGraw-Hill, New York 1937, page 45 is the discrete probability distribution of a random variable which takes the value 1 with probability $p$ and the value 0 with probability $q = 1-p$. Less formally, it can be thought of as a model for the set of possible outcomes of any single experiment that asks a yes–no question. Such questions lead to outcomes that are boolean-valued: a single bit whose value is success/yes/true/one with probability ''p'' and failure/no/false/zero with probability ''q''. It can be used to represent a (possibly biased) coin toss where 1 and 0 would represent "heads" and "tails", respectively, and ''p'' would be the probability of the coin landing on heads (or vice versa where 1 would represent tails and ''p'' would be the probability of tails). In particular, unfair coins would have $p \neq 1/2.$

The Bernoulli distribution is a special case of the binomial distribution where a single trial is conducted (so ''n'' would be 1 for such a binomial distribution). It is also a special case of the two-point distribution, for which the possible outcomes need not be 0 and 1.

Properties

If $X$ is a random variable with this distribution, then:

:$\Pr(X=1) = p = 1 - \Pr(X=0) = 1 - q.$

The probability mass function $f$ of this distribution, over possible outcomes ''k'', is

:$f(k;p) = \begin p & \textk=1, \\ q = 1-p & \text k = 0. \end$

This can also be expressed as

:$f(k;p) = p^k (1-p)^ \quad \text k\in\$

or as

:$f(k;p)=pk+(1-p)(1-k) \quad \text k\in\.$

The Bernoulli distribution is a special case of the binomial distribution with $n = 1.$

The kurtosis goes to infinity for high and low values of $p,$ but for $p=1/2$ the two-point distributions including the Bernoulli distribution have a lower excess kurtosis than any other probability distribution, namely −2.

The Bernoulli distributions for $0 \le p \le 1$ form an exponential family.

The maximum likelihood estimator of $p$ based on a random sample is the sample mean.

Mean

The expected value of a Bernoulli random variable $X$ is

:\operatorname p

This is due to the fact that for a Bernoulli distributed random variable $X$ with $\Pr(X=1)=p$ and $\Pr(X=0)=q$ we find

:\operatorname = \Pr(X=1)\cdot 1 + \Pr(X=0)\cdot 0
= p \cdot 1 + q\cdot 0 = p.

Variance

The variance of a Bernoulli distributed $X$ is

:\operatorname = pq = p(1-p)

We first find

:\operatorname ^2= \Pr(X=1)\cdot 1^2 + \Pr(X=0)\cdot 0^2 = p \cdot 1^2 + q\cdot 0^2 = p = \operatorname

From this follows

:\operatorname = \operatorname ^2\operatorname 2 = \operatorname \operatorname 2 = p-p^2 = p(1-p) = pq

With this result it is easy to prove that, for any Bernoulli distribution, its variance will have a value inside ,1/4/math>.

Skewness

The skewness is $\frac=\frac$. When we take the standardized Bernoulli distributed random variable $\frac$ we find that this random variable attains $\frac$ with probability $p$ and attains $-\frac$ with probability $q$. Thus we get

:\begin
\gamma_1 &= \operatorname \left left(\frac\right)^3\right\\
&= p \cdot \left(\frac\right)^3 + q \cdot \left(-\frac\right)^3 \\
&= \frac \left(pq^3-qp^3\right) \\
&= \frac (q-p) \\
&= \frac.
\end

Higher moments and cumulants

The raw moments are all equal due to the fact that $1^k=1$ and $0^k=0$.

:\operatorname ^k= \Pr(X=1)\cdot 1^k + \Pr(X=0)\cdot 0^k = p \cdot 1 + q\cdot 0 = p = \operatorname

The central moment of order $k$ is given by
:$\mu_k =(1-p)(-p)^k +p(1-p)^k.$
The first six central moments are
:$\begin \mu_1 &= 0, \\ \mu_2 &= p(1-p), \\ \mu_3 &= p(1-p)(1-2p), \\ \mu_4 &= p(1-p)(1-3p(1-p)), \\ \mu_5 &= p(1-p)(1-2p)(1-2p(1-p)), \\ \mu_6 &= p(1-p)(1-5p(1-p)(1-p(1-p))). \end$
The higher central moments can be expressed more compactly in terms of $\mu_2$ and $\mu_3$
:$\begin \mu_4 &= \mu_2 (1-3\mu_2 ), \\ \mu_5 &= \mu_3 (1-2\mu_2 ), \\ \mu_6 &= \mu_2 (1-5\mu_2 (1-\mu_2 )). \end$
The first six cumulants are
:$\begin \kappa_1 &= p, \\ \kappa_2 &= \mu_2 , \\ \kappa_3 &= \mu_3 , \\ \kappa_4 &= \mu_2 (1-6\mu_2 ), \\ \kappa_5 &= \mu_3 (1-12\mu_2 ), \\ \kappa_6 &= \mu_2 (1-30\mu_2 (1-4\mu_2 )). \end$

Related distributions

*If $X_1,\dots,X_n$ are independent, identically distributed ( i.i.d.) random variables, all Bernoulli trials with success probability ''p'', then their sum is distributed according to a binomial distribution with parameters ''n'' and ''p'':
*:$\sum_^n X_k \sim \operatorname(n,p)$ (binomial distribution).

:The Bernoulli distribution is simply $\operatorname(1, p)$, also written as $\mathrm (p).$

*The categorical distribution is the generalization of the Bernoulli distribution for variables with any constant number of discrete values.
*The Beta distribution is the conjugate prior of the Bernoulli distribution.
*The geometric distribution models the number of independent and identical Bernoulli trials needed to get one success.
*If $Y \sim \mathrm\left(\frac\right)$, then $2Y - 1$ has a Rademacher distribution.

See also

*Bernoulli process, a random process consisting of a sequence of independent Bernoulli trials
* Bernoulli sampling
* Binary entropy function
* Binary decision diagram

References

Further reading

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External links

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* Interactive graphic
Univariate Distribution Relationships

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernoulli Distribution
Discrete distributions
Conjugate prior distributions
Exponential family distributions