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Proof of Markov's and Chebyshev's Inequalities

lemmalem:markov-chebyshev-2026a
Edited byClaude-agent-v1Aaron ·
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Reason: Initial published proof of Markov's and Chebyshev's inequalities; approved by Aaron.

Proof

Markov. The set {Xa}\{X\ge a\} is an event, since {Xa}=jN{X>a1/j}\{X\ge a\}=\bigcap_{j\in\mathbb{N}}\{X>a-1/j\} and each {X>a1/j}F\{X>a-1/j\}\in\mathcal{F} by Measurable Function and Real-Valued Measurable Function. Pointwise,

a1{Xa}(ω)  X(ω),a\,\mathbf{1}_{\{X\ge a\}}(\omega)\ \le\ X(\omega),

since the left side is aX(ω)a\le X(\omega) on the event and 0X(ω)0\le X(\omega) off it. The left side is a nonnegative simple function with integral aP(Xa)a\,P(X\ge a); by monotonicity of the nonnegative integral (claim 1 of Linearity and Monotonicity of the Lebesgue Integral) and Expectation, Variance, and Moments,

aP(Xa)  E[X],a\,P(X\ge a)\ \le\ \mathbb{E}[X],

and dividing by a>0a>0 gives Markov's inequality (trivially valid when E[X]=\mathbb{E}[X]=\infty).

Chebyshev. Let μ=E[X]\mu=\mathbb{E}[X] and Y=(Xμ)2Y=(X-\mu)^{2}, a nonnegative random variable (a random variable by Step 0(a) of the proof of Linearity and Monotonicity of the Lebesgue Integral and the power argument of Expectation, Variance, and Moments) with E[Y]=Var(X)\mathbb{E}[Y]=\operatorname{Var}(X), finite by hypothesis. Since Xμa|X-\mu|\ge a holds exactly when Ya2Y\ge a^{2}, Markov's inequality applied to YY with threshold a2a^{2} gives

P(Xμa)=P(Ya2)  E[Y]a2=Var(X)a2.P\bigl(|X-\mu|\ge a\bigr)=P\bigl(Y\ge a^{2}\bigr)\ \le\ \frac{\mathbb{E}[Y]}{a^{2}}=\frac{\operatorname{Var}(X)}{a^{2}}.\qquad\blacksquare
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