Conditional Variance - Definition

Definition

The conditional variance of a random variable Y given that the value of a random variable X takes the value x is

where E is the expectation operator with respect to the conditional distribution of Y given that the X takes the value x. An alternative notation for this is :

The above may be stated in the alternative form that, based on the conditional distribution of Y given that the X takes the value x, the conditional variance is the variance of this probability distribution.

Read more about this topic:  Conditional Variance

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    The very definition of the real becomes: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction.... The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced. The hyperreal.
    Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)

    Mothers often are too easily intimidated by their children’s negative reactions...When the child cries or is unhappy, the mother reads this as meaning that she is a failure. This is why it is so important for a mother to know...that the process of growing up involves by definition things that her child is not going to like. Her job is not to create a bed of roses, but to help him learn how to pick his way through the thorns.
    Elaine Heffner (20th century)

    ... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)