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Home Univariate Data Distributions Most common distributons Poisson Distribution
See also: binomial distribution, relationship between distributions 

Poisson Distribution


 
Definition

Similar to binomial distribution, but used if the probability that the observed event occurs is very small, in contrast to the population, that is a very large number. 
Graphical View
Applications The Poisson distribution is the distribution of rare events. A typical application is the probability that a certain number of accidents will occur in a given interval, or the probability of radioactive decay. The number of atoms to decompose is relatively small compared to the number of all atoms in the material. 
First Moment m = l
Second Moment s = l
Simulation The program Discrete Distributions calculates the probability density functions of the binomial, the hypergeometric, and Poisson distribution. After specifying the appropriate parameters both the probability density and the cumulative distribution is calculated and displayed.

Last Update: 2009-Mär-29