HELP! How do you find marginal frequency distributions in statistics? :)
You must be given a joint pdf of two jointly discrete/continuous random variables. Whatever the case may be, if \(f(x,y)\) is the joint pdf and \(f(x)\) and \(f(y)\) are the marginal pdf's of random variables \(X\) and \(Y\), respectively, then the marginal pdf of \(X\) is \[f(x)=\begin{cases}\displaystyle\sum_{y\text{'s}}f(x,y)&\text{if }X,Y\text{ discrete}\\ \displaystyle\int_{-\infty}^\infty f(x,y)~dy&\text{if }X,Y\text{ continuous}\end{cases}\] Alternatively, you can also get one random variable's marginal pdf if you're given the other's, as well as the conditional pdf, \(f(x|y)\): \[f(x)=\begin{cases}\displaystyle\sum_{y\text{'s}}f(x|y)f(y)&\text{if }X,Y\text{ discrete}\\ \displaystyle\int_{-\infty}^\infty f(x|y)f(y)~dy&\text{if }X,Y\text{ continuous}\end{cases}\]
It'd probably be easier to understand if you have an example...
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