Question: how to calculate the covariance of two random variables?
Answer: One of the applications of covariance is finding the variance of a sum of several random variables. In particular, if Z=X+Y, then Var(Z)=Cov(Z,Z)=Cov(X+Y,X+Y)=Cov(X,X)+Cov(X,Y)+Cov(Y,X)+Cov(Y,Y)=Var(X)+Var(Y)+2Cov(X,Y).