This theorem describes the behaviour of a sum of random variables as a random variable:
If for ,
where each is a random sample from a distribution
with mean and variance , then
where
( ``The mean of the sum is the sum of the means'')
and
( ``The variance of the sum is the sum of the variances''),
regardless of the shape of
[as long as and are finite and well-defined].
Note especially that is always a normal (Gaussian) distribution!
I have used an unconventional notation here ( instead of for the variance) because K&K use for the entropy and I don't want to create more notational ambiguity than necessary.