Guide to Using Minitab 14 For Basic Statistical Applications To Accompany Business Statistics: A Decision Making Approach, 8th Ed. Chapter 5: Introduction to Discrete Probability Distributions By Groebner, Shannon, Fry, & Smith Prentice-Hall Publishing Company Copyright, 2011

Chapter 5 Minitab Examples Binomial Mean - Binomial Mean - Binomial Mean - Binomial Mean - Catalog Sales Poisson Distribution Poisson Distribution Poisson Distribution Poisson Distribution Heritage Tile More Examples

Binomial Mean Catalog Sales Issue: People who order items from catalogs can return the items for a refund. Historical return rate for one catalog has been 11 percent. Is this rate still valid? Objective: Use Minitab to compute binomial probabilities based on a sample of 300 purchases.

Situation:  Sample Size is n = 300  p =.11  Mean = np = 300(.11) = 33  44 returns were observed  P(X > 44) = 1 – P(X < 43)  Find P(X < 43) = ? Binomial Mean – Catalog Sales

Select Calc – Probability Distributions - Binomial Binomial Probabilities – EPA Standards

Binomial Mean – Catalog Sales Specify Cumulative probability, Number of trials, success probability, and the Input constant (= number of successes)

Binomial Probability – Now Take = 0.03 Binomial Mean – Catalog Sales

Poisson Distribution Heritage Title Poisson Distribution Heritage Title Issue: The distribution for the number of defects per tile made by Heritage Tile is Poisson distributed with a mean of 3 defects per tile. The manager is worried about the high variability Objective: Use Minitab to generate the Poisson distribution and histogram to visually see spread in the distribution of possible defects.

Select Calc – then select Probability Distributions – then Poisson Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile Create Number column (0 – 10)

Select Probability and the Input column. Enter the Number column and label optional storage column as Probability Mean = 3 Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile

Poisson Probabilities for mean = 3 Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile

Select Graph – Bar Chart Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile

Select Values from table – Simple - OK Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile

Select variable to graph – Select categorical variable - OK Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile

Poisson Probability Distribution Poisson Standard Deviation – Heritage Tile