# Discrete vs Continuous Probability Distributions in context of Data Science

Aug 27, 2020 · 14 min read

First lets define some terms for clarity

The sample space Ω
The sample space is the set of all possible outcomes of the experiment,
usually denoted by Ω. For example, two successive coin tosses have
a sample space of {hh, tt, ht, th}, where “h” denotes “heads” and “t”
denotes “tails”.

The event space A
The event space is the space of potential results of the experiment. A
subset A of the sample space Ω is in the event space A if at the end
of the experiment we can observe whether a particular outcome ω ∈ Ω
is in A. The event space A is obtained by considering the collection of
subsets of Ω, and for discrete probability distributions (Section 6.2.1)
A is often the power set of Ω.

The probability P
With each event A ∈ A, we associate a number P (A) that measures the
probability or degree of belief that the event will occur. P (A) is called
the probability of A.

The probability of a single event must lie in the interval [0, 1], and the
total probability over all outcomes in the sample space Ω must be 1, i.e.,
P (Ω) = 1. Given a probability space (Ω, A, P ), we want to use it to model
some real-world phenomenon. In machine learning, we often avoid explic-
itly referring to the probability space, but instead refer to probabilities on
quantities of interest, which we denote by T as the target space and refer to elements of of T as states.

The term `probability` relates is to an `event` and `probability distribution` relates is to a `random variable`.

It is a convention that the term `probability mass function` refers to the `probability distribution` of a `discrete random variable` and the term `probability density function` refers to the probability function of a `continuous random variable`.

# Understanding Probability Density

First a quick reference on PMF, PDF and CDF

In order to understand the heart of modern probability, we need to extend the concept of integration from basic calculus.
To begin, let us consider the following piecewise function

Applying the fundamental Riemann integration of Calculus we get

which has the usual interpretation as the area of the two rectangles that make up f (x).

The question is given f (x) = 1, what is the set of x values for which this is true? For our example, this is true whenever x ∈ (0, 1]. So now we have a correspondence between the values of the function (namely, 1 and 2) and the sets of x values for which this is true, namely, {(0, 1]} and {(1, 2]}, respectively. To compute the integral, we simply take the function values
(i.e., 1,2) and some way of measuring the size of the corresponding interval.

Since areas can be defined by definite integrals, we can also define the probability of an event occuring within an interval [a, b] by the definite integral

where f(x) is called the probability density function (pdf).

A function f(x) is called a probability density function if

1. f(x)≥0 for all x
2. The area under the graph of f(x) over all the real line is exactly 1
3. The probability that x is in the interval [a, b] is

i.e. the area under the graph of f(x) from a to b.

In the problem above, the probability density function f(x) is called a uniform (flat) probability density function (pdf).

So fundamentally, what does a probability density at point 𝒙 mean?

Probability density function’s value at some specific point does not give you probability; it is a measure of how dense the distribution is around that value. It means how much probability is concentrated per unit length (d𝒙) near 𝒙, or how dense the probability is near 𝒙.

For discrete random variables, we look up the value of a PMF at a single point to find its probability P(𝐗=𝒙)
For continuous random variables, we take an integral of a PDF over a certain interval
to find its probability that X will fall in that interval.

# Discrete Random Variable

Given a random experiment with sample space S,a random variable X is a set function that assigns one and only one real number to each element s that belongs in the sample space S.

The set of all possible values of the random variable X, denoted x, I am calling here as the support, or space, of X.

Note that the capital letters at the end of the alphabet, such as W,X,Y, and Z typically represent the definition of the random variable. The corresponding lowercase letters, such as w,x,y, and z, represent the random variable’s possible values.

By a discrete random variable, it is meant a function (or a mapping), say X, from a sample space Ω, into the set of real numbers. Symbolically, if ω ∈Ω, then X (ω ) = x, where x is a real number.

A random variable X is a discrete random variable if:

• there are a finite number of possible outcomes of X, or
• there are a countably infinite number of possible outcomes of X.

A countably infinite number of possible outcomes means that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the outcomes and the set of integers.

No such one-to-one correspondence exists for an uncountably infinite number of possible outcomes.

For a value x of the set of possible outcomes of the random variable X , i.e., x ∈ T , p(x) denotes the probability that random variable X has the outcome x.

For discrete random variables, this is written as P (X = x), which is known as the probability mass function. The pmf is often referred to as the distribution”. For continuous variables, p(x) is called the probability density function (often referred to as a density).

When we say probability distribution it may pertain to a discrete random variable or a continuous random variable, depending on the context.

When the random variable is discrete, probability distribution means, how the total probability is distributed over various possible values of the random variable. Consider the experiment of tossing two unbiased coins simultaneously. Then, sample space S associated with this experiment is:

`S = {HH,HT,TH,TT} `

If we define a random variable X as: the number of heads on this sample space S, then we will have

X(HH)=2,

X(HT)=X(TH)=1,

X(TT)=0

X(HH)=2,

X(HT)=X(TH)=1,

X(TT)=0.

The probability distribution of XX is then given by

For a discrete random variable, we consider events of the type {X=x} and compute probabilities of such events to describe the distribution of the random variable.

The Probability Mass Function of a Discrete Random Variable expresses the probability of the variable being equal to each specific value in the range of all potential discrete values defi ned.The sum of these probabilities over all possible values equals 100%.

In mathematical form, the probability that a discrete random variable X takes on a particular value x, that is, P(X=x), is frequently denoted f(x). The function f(x) is typically called the probability mass function

Let X be a discrete random variable with possible values denoted x1, x2, xi, x1, x2, xi,…. The probability mass function of X, denoted p

The same above in more general mathematical form, the probability mass function, P(X=x)=f(x), of a discrete random variable X is a function that satisfies the following properties:

First item basically says that, for every element x in the support S, all of the probabilities must be positive. Note that if x does not belong in the support S, then f(x)=0. The second item basically says that if you add up the probabilities for all of the possible x values in the support S, then the sum must equal 1. And, the third item says to determine the probability associated with the event A, you just sum up the probabilities of the x values in A.

Since f(x) is a function, it can be presented:

• in tabular form
• in graphical form
• as a formula

If a random variable can take only a finite number of discrete values, then it is
discrete.

A fair die is a small cube with a natural number from 1 to 6 engraved on each side equally spaced without repetition. The fairness means that a die is made so that its weight is equally spread and, thus, all six faces are equally likely to face when rolled. So, if rolled, the set of numbers { 1,2,3,4,5,6} is the sample space of this experiment.

Now let’s consider the experiment of rolling a pair of fair dice. Then, the set of
possible outcomes, that is, the sample space Ω, contains 36 pairs.

In each pair, the first element represents the number appearing on one die and the second appearing on the other. We can define a discrete random variable X such that it assigns numbers 1 through 36 to the ordered pairs in Ω from the beginning to the end, respectively, as follows:

Now an actual Python implemention in the below Jupyter Notebook

# Continuous Random Variables

A continuous random variable differs from a discrete random variable in that it takes on an uncountably infinite number of possible outcomes.

While for a discrete random variable X that takes on a finite or countably infinite number of possible values, we determined P(X=x) for all of the possible values of X, and called it the probability mass function (“p.m.f.”). For continuous random variables, the probability that X takes on any particular value x is 0. That is, finding P(X=x) for a continuous random variable X is not going to work. Instead, we’ll need to find the probability that X falls in some interval (a,b), that is, we’ll need to find P(a<X<b). We’ll do that using a probability density function (“p.d.f.”).

The Probability Density Function of a Continuous Random Variable expresses
the rate of change in the probability distribution over the range of potential continuous values defined, and expresses the relative likelihood of getting one value in comparison with another.

A nondiscrete random variable X is said to be absolutely continuous, or simply continuous, if its distribution function may be represented as

where the function f (x) has the properties

It follows from the above that if X is a continuous random variable, then the probability that X takes on any one particular value is zero, whereas the interval probability that X lies between two different values, say, a and b,
is given by

A function f (x) that satisfies the above requirements is called a probability function or probability distribution for a continuous random variable, but it is more often called a probability density function or simply density function. Any function f (x) satisfying Properties 1 and 2 above will automatically be a density function, and required probabilities can then be obtained from the more general form below

A function f : RD → R is called a probability density function (pdf ) if
1. ∀x ∈ RD : f (x) > 0
2. Its integral exists and

So observe that the probability density function is any function f that is
non-negative and integrates to one. And as stated above, we associate a random variable X with this function f by

As you can see, the definition for the p.d.f. of a continuous random variable differs from the definition for the p.m.f. of a discrete random variable by simply changing the summations that appeared in the discrete case to integrals in the continuous case.

Now at the start of this article we discussed how density histogram (representing frequency) is defined so that the area of each rectangle equals the relative frequency of the corresponding class, and the area of the entire histogram equals 1. That suggests then that finding the probability that a continuous random variable X falls in some interval of values involves finding the area under the curve f(x) sandwiched by the endpoints of the interval.

So from a large sample space of Pizza, the probability that a randomly selected Pizza weighs between 0.20 and 0.30 pounds is then this area: (which is what the definite Integral formulae above calculates )

Some examples of well known discrete probability distributions include:

• Poisson distribution.
• Bernoulli and binomial distributions.
• Multinoulli and multinomial distributions.
• Discrete uniform distribution.
• The Geometric Distribution
• The Negative-Binomial Distribution
• The Hypergeometric Distribution

Some examples of common domains with well-known discrete probability distributions include:

• The probabilities of dice rolls form a discrete uniform distribution.
• The probabilities of coin flips form a Bernoulli distribution.
• The probabilities car colors form a multinomial distribution.

A quick summary

Now lets see an simple actual exmaple of Discrete Probability Distribution. Quickly revisit the definition

The probability distribution of a discrete random variable X is a list of each possible value of X together with the probability that X takes that value in one trial of the experiment.

I start with a simple experiment, tossing a fair coin 10 times, and measured how many successes/heads I observe. I can use the number of successes (heads) observed in many ways to understand the basics of probability. For example, I could simply count how many times we see 0 heads, 1 head, 2 heads with our fair coin toss, and so on. Or here, I am just denoting the outcome with ‘H’ or ‘T’ for each experiment.

Now a quick and simple Math example of PDF

Let X be a continuous random variable whose probability density function is:

First, note again that

For example,

which is clearly not a probability! In the continuous case, f(x) is instead the height of the curve at X=x, so that the total area under the curve is 1. In the continuous case, it is areas under the curve that define the probabilities.

What is P(X=1/2)?

It is a straightforward integration to see that the probability is 0:

In general, if X is continuous, the probability that X takes on any specific value x is 0. That is, when X is continuous, P(X=x)=0 for all x in the support.

An implication of the fact that P(X=x)=0 for all x when X is continuous is that you can be less precise about the endpoints of intervals when finding probabilities of continuous random variables. That is:

for any constants a and b.

Further explanation of the above principle

The probability of observing any single value of the continuous random variable is 0 since the number of possible outcomes of a continuous random variable is uncountable and infinite. That is, for a continuous random variable, we must calculate a probability over an interval rather than at a particular point. This is why the probability for a continuous random variable can be interpreted as an area under the curve on an interval. In other words, we cannot describe the probability distribution of a continuous random variable by giving probability of single values of the random variable as we did for a discrete random variable. This property can also be seen from the fact that

for any real c

# Why do I need to Integrate over the PDF to get the Probability

In the case of of continuous random variable, we should not ask for the probability that X is exactly a single number (since that probability is zero). Instead, we need to think about the probability that x is close to a single number.

We capture the notion of being close to a number with a probability density function which is normally denoted by P(x). If the probability density around a point x is large, that means the random variable X is likely to be close to x. If, on the other hand, P(x)=0 in some interval, then X won’t be in that interval.

So building on the Integration concept of Calculus

If the probability of X being exactly at point 𝒙 is zero, how about an extremely small interval around the point 𝒙? Say, [𝒙, 𝒙+d𝒙]?

Let’s assume d𝒙 is infinitesimally small with a value of 0.00000000001.

Then the probability that X will fall in [𝒙, 𝒙+d𝒙] is the Area under the curve f(𝒙) sandwiched by [𝒙, 𝒙+d𝒙].

The Area Under a Curve — Integral Calculus Basics

The area under a curve between two points can be found by doing a definite integral between the two points. To find the area under the curve y = f(x) between x = a and x = b, integrate y = f(x) between the limits of a and b.

To translate the probability density P(x) into a probability, imagine that Ix is some small interval around the point x. Then, assuming P is continuous, the probability that X is in that interval will depend both on the density P(x) and the length of the interval

`P ( X ∈ Ix) ≈ P (x) × Length of Ix`

We don’t have a true equality here, because the density P may vary over the interval Ix. But, the approximation becomes better and better as the interval Ix shrinks around the point x, as P will be come closer and closer to a constant inside that small interval. The probability P ( X ∈ Ix ) approaches zero as Ix shrinks down to an infinitesemally small value to the point x (consistent with our above result for single numbers), but the information about X is contained in the rate that this probability goes to zero as Ix shrinks.

So, to determine the probability that X is in any subset A of the real numbers, we simply add up the values of P(x) in the subset. By “add up,” we mean integrate the function P(x) over the set A.

# Cumulative Distribution Function

The Cumulative Distribution Function of a Discrete Random Variable expresses the theoretical or observed probability of that variable being less than or equal to any given value. It equates to the sum of the probabilities of achieving that value and each successive lower value.

And now the same for Continuous Random Variable

The Cumulative Distribution Function of a Continuous Random Variable
expresses the theoretical or observed probability of that variable being less than or equal to any given value. It equates to the area under the Probability Density Function curve to the left of the value in question.

Now implementing some very basic PDF with Python and Scipy

Another Jupyter Notebook to undersand how PDF is different from Probability

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