how do we call this p(x) in satistics?

Question

i want the statistics answer for example suppose that a random variable has three outcomes ,x=3,5,12 ,and p(x)=0.2,0.6.0.2 , how do we get the value for p(x)?

Answer 1

In words this means that the probability of finding x=3 is 0.2 (20%), or x=5 is 0.6 (60%).

The only other outcome is x=12 so the probability of x=12 has two be 1-0.2-0.8=0.2, because we know that it's certain that x will be one of only three different values.

Imagine we had 10 balls in a box consisting of 2 balls marked 3, 2 balls marked 12, and 6 marked 5. The probabilities of selecting a ball marked 3 is 2/10=0.2; a ball marked 5 is 6/10=0.6; a ball marked 12 is 2/10=0.2. It's certain that a ball marked with 3, 5 or 12 will be selected=10/10=1.