moment generating functions

(1.3 hours to learn)

Summary

The moment generating function (MGF) is a function which characterizes the distribution of a random variable. MGFs are useful for analyzing sums of independent random variables. In particular, they are used in the proof of the Central Limit Theorem and in deriving the Chernoff bounds, which bound the probability that a sum of independent random variables takes on extreme values.

Context

This concept has the prerequisites:

Core resources (read/watch one of the following)

-Paid-

See also

  • MGFs are an important tool for proving several important results:
    • central limit theorem , which characterizes the limiting distribution of the mean of i.i.d. random variables
    • Chernoff bounds , which bound the probability of sums of random variables taking extreme values
    MGFs are closely related to the [Fourier transform](fourier_transform) .