1. Special Discrete Distributions
Chapter 7
Special Discrete Distributions

2. Binomial Distribution B(n,p)
Each trial results in one of two mutually exclusive outcomes. (success/failure)
There are a fixed number of trials
Outcomes of different trials are independent
The probability that a trial results in success is the same for all trials
The binomial random variable x is defined as the number of successes out of the fixed number

3. Are these binomial distributions?
Toss a coin 10 times and count the number of heads
Yes
Deal 10 cards from a shuffled deck and count the number of red cards
No, probability does not remain constant
Two parents with genes for O and A blood types and count the number of children with blood type O
No, no fixed number

4. Toss a 3 coins and count the number of heads
Find the discrete probability distribution X
P(x)
Out of 3 coins that are tossed, what is the probability of getting exactly 2 heads?

5. Binomial Formula: Where: Relax, it’s on the formula chart!
But you have to know what this means

6. Out of 3 coins that are tossed, what is the probability of getting exactly 2 heads?

7. The number of inaccurate gauges in a group of four is a binomial random variable. If the probability of a defect is 0.1, what is the probability that only 1 is defective?
More than 1 is defective?

8. Calculator
Binomialpdf(n,p,x) – this calculates the probability of a single binomial P(x = k)
Binomialcdf(n,p,x) – this calculates the cumulative probabilities from P(0) to P(k) OR P(X < k)

9. A genetic trait of one family manifests itself in 25% of the offspring
A genetic trait of one family manifests itself in 25% of the offspring. If eight offspring are randomly selected, find the probability that the trait will appear in exactly three of them.
At least 5?

10. P(x < 6) = binomcdf(10,.3,0,6) = .9894
In a certain county, 30% of the voters are Republicans. If ten voters are selected at random, find the probability that no more than six of them will be Republicans.
P(x < 6) = binomcdf(10,.3,0,6) = .9894
What is the probability that at least 7 are not Republicans?
P(x > 7) = binomcdf(10,.7,7,10) = .6496

11. Binomial formulas for mean and standard deviation

12. In a certain county, 30% of the voters are Republicans
In a certain county, 30% of the voters are Republicans. How many Republicans would you expect in ten randomly selected voters?
What is the standard deviation for this distribution?
expect

13. Sketch histogram on board
Binomial Activity
In L1 – seq(x,x,0,10)
In L2 – binompdf(10, .1 ,L1)
Sketch histogram on board

14. Binomial Activity
What happened to the shape of the distribution as the probability of success increased?
As the probability of success increases, the shape changes from being skewed right to symmetrical at p =.5 to skewed left.

15. Binomial Activity
Calculate the mean and standard deviations for each of the probabilities
What do you notice?
As the probability of success increase,
the means increase.
the standard deviations increase to p = .5, then decrease. Their values are also symmetrical.

16. Geometric Distributions:
There are two mutually exclusive outcomes
Each trial is independent of the others
The probability of success remains constant for each trial.
The random variable x is the number of trials UNTIL the FIRST success occurs.
So what are the possible values of X
How far will this go?
To infinity X 1 2 3 4
. . .

17. Differences between binomial & geometric distributions
The difference between binomial and geometric properties is that there is NOT a fixed number of trials in geometric distributions!

18. Other differences:
Binomial random variables start with 0 while geometric random variables start with 1
Binomial distributions are finite, while geometric distributions are infinite

19. Not on formula sheet – they will be given on quiz or test
Geometric Formulas:
Not on formula sheet – they will be given on quiz or test

20. What are the values for these random variables?
Count the number of boys in a family of four children.
What are the values for these random variables?
Binomial: X
Count children until first son is born
Geometric: X

21. No “n” because there is no fixed number!
Calculator
geometpdf(p,x) – finds the geometric probability for P(X = k)
Geometcdf(p,x) – finds the cumulative probability for P( X < k)
P(X > k) = 1- geometcdf(p,x-1)
No “n” because there is no fixed number!

22. What is the probability that the first son is the fourth child born?
What is the probability that the first son is born is at most four children?

23. A real estate agent shows a house to prospective buyers
A real estate agent shows a house to prospective buyers. The probability that the house will be sold to the person is 35%. What is the probability that the agent will sell the house to the third person she shows it to?
How many prospective buyers does she expect to show the house to before someone buys the house?

24. Poisson Distributions
This distribution deals with the probabilities of rare events that occur infrequently in space, time, distance, area, etc.
Examples:
The number of accidents that occur per month at a given intersection
The number of tardies per semester for a given student
The number of runs per inning in a baseball game

25. Properties:
The occurrence of a success in any interval is independent of that in any other interval
The probability that a success will occur in any interval is the same for all intervals of equal size and is proportional to the size of the interval
We observe a discrete number of events in a continuous (fixed) interval.

26. Formulas: X = number of rare events per unit of time, space, etc.
l = mean value of X (Greek letter lambda)

27. The number of accidents in an office building during a four-week period averages 2. What is the probability there will be one accident in the next four-week period?
What is the probability that there will be more than two accidents in the next four-week period?

28. From 8:00 until 8:30 is a 30 minute period.
Since the period is doubled, you must double the mean amount of calls to keep it proportional!
The number of calls to a police department between 8 pm and 8:30 pm on Friday averages 3.5.
What is the probability of no calls during this period?
What is the probability of no calls between 8 pm and 9 pm on Friday night?
What is the mean and standard deviation of the number of calls between 10 pm and midnight on Friday night?
P(X = 0) = poissonpdf(3.5,0) =.0302
Be sure to adjust l!
P(X = 0) = poissonpdf(7,0) =.0009
m = 14 & s = 3.742

29. What happens to the shape? What happens to the means?
Examine the histograms of the Poisson distributions –
l = l = 4
What happens to the shape?
What happens to the means?
What happens to the standard deviations?
l= 6

30. As l increases The distributions become more symmetrical
The means increase
The standard deviations increase