When does the expectation of a ratio equal the ratio of expectations? (Q1280040): Difference between revisions

After the introduction of the expectation of a random variable, it is considered good practice to warn the students that as the expectation is a linear operator, in general the expectation of a nonlinear function of random variables is not equal to the function of the expectations. Quite often Jensen's inequality is used to stress the point. In this paper, however, we intend to show that when the nonlinear function is a ratio then in a number of cases the above is not true.