<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

Try it

An emergency room at a particular hospital gets an average of five patients per hour. A doctor wants to know the probability that the ER gets more than five patients per hour. Give the reason why this would be a Poisson distribution.

This problem wants to find the probability of events occurring in a fixed interval of time with a known average rate. The events are independent.

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Notation for the poisson: p = poisson probability distribution function

X ~ P ( μ )

Read this as " X is a random variable with a Poisson distribution." The parameter is μ (or λ ); μ (or λ ) = the mean for the interval of interest.

Leah's answering machine receives about six telephone calls between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. What is the probability that Leah receives more than one call in the next 15 minutes?

Let X = the number of calls Leah receives in 15 minutes. (The interval of interest is 15 minutes or 1 4 hour.)

x = 0, 1, 2, 3, ...

If Leah receives, on the average, six telephone calls in two hours, and there are eight 15 minute intervals in two hours, then Leah receives

( 1 8 ) (6) = 0.75 calls in 15 minutes, on average. So, μ = 0.75 for this problem.

X ~ P (0.75)

Find P ( x >1). P ( x >1) = 0.1734 (calculator or computer)

  • Press 1 – and then press 2 nd DISTR.
  • Arrow down to poissoncdf. Press ENTER.
  • Enter (.75,1).
  • The result is P ( x >1) = 0.1734.

Note

The TI calculators use λ (lambda) for the mean.

The probability that Leah receives more than one telephone call in the next 15 minutes is about 0.1734:
P ( x >1) = 1 − poissoncdf(0.75, 1).

The graph of X ~ P (0.75) is:

This graphs shows a poisson probability distribution. It has 5 bars that decrease in height from left to right. The x-axis shows values in increments of 1 starting with 0, representing the number of calls Leah receives within 15 minutes. The y-axis ranges from 0 to 0.5 in increments of 0.1.

The y -axis contains the probability of x where X = the number of calls in 15 minutes.

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Try it

A customer service center receives about ten emails every half-hour. What is the probability that the customer service center receives more than four emails in the next six minutes? Use the TI-83+ or TI-84 calculator to find the answer.

P ( x >4) = 0.0527

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

According to Baydin, an email management company, an email user gets, on average, 147 emails per day. Let X = the number of emails an email user receives per day. The discrete random variable X takes on the values x = 0, 1, 2 …. The random variable X has a Poisson distribution: X ~ P (147). The mean is 147 emails.

  1. What is the probability that an email user receives exactly 160 emails per day?
  2. What is the probability that an email user receives at most 160 emails per day?
  3. What is the standard deviation?
  1. P ( x = 160) = poissonpdf(147, 160) ≈ 0.0180
  2. P ( x ≤ 160) = poissoncdf(147, 160) ≈ 0.8666
  3. Standard Deviation = σ = μ = 147 12.1244
Got questions? Get instant answers now!
Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Try it

According to a recent poll by the Pew Internet Project, girls between the ages of 14 and 17 send an average of 187 text messages each day. Let X = the number of texts that a girl aged 14 to 17 sends per day. The discrete random variable X takes on the values x = 0, 1, 2 …. The random variable X has a Poisson distribution: X ~ P (187). The mean is 187 text messages.

  1. What is the probability that a teen girl sends exactly 175 texts per day?
  2. What is the probability that a teen girl sends at most 150 texts per day?
  3. What is the standard deviation?
  1. P ( x = 175) = poissonpdf(187, 175) ≈ 0.0203
  2. P ( x ≤ 150) = poissoncdf(187, 150) ≈ 0.0030
  3. Standard Deviation = σ = μ  =  187 13.6748
Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Questions & Answers

what does preconceived mean
sammie Reply
physiological Psychology
Nwosu Reply
How can I develope my cognitive domain
Amanyire Reply
why is communication effective
Dakolo Reply
Communication is effective because it allows individuals to share ideas, thoughts, and information with others.
effective communication can lead to improved outcomes in various settings, including personal relationships, business environments, and educational settings. By communicating effectively, individuals can negotiate effectively, solve problems collaboratively, and work towards common goals.
it starts up serve and return practice/assessments.it helps find voice talking therapy also assessments through relaxed conversation.
miss
Every time someone flushes a toilet in the apartment building, the person begins to jumb back automatically after hearing the flush, before the water temperature changes. Identify the types of learning, if it is classical conditioning identify the NS, UCS, CS and CR. If it is operant conditioning, identify the type of consequence positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or punishment
Wekolamo Reply
please i need answer
Wekolamo
because it helps many people around the world to understand how to interact with other people and understand them well, for example at work (job).
Manix Reply
Agreed 👍 There are many parts of our brains and behaviors, we really need to get to know. Blessings for everyone and happy Sunday!
ARC
A child is a member of community not society elucidate ?
JESSY Reply
Isn't practices worldwide, be it psychology, be it science. isn't much just a false belief of control over something the mind cannot truly comprehend?
Simon Reply
compare and contrast skinner's perspective on personality development on freud
namakula Reply
Skinner skipped the whole unconscious phenomenon and rather emphasized on classical conditioning
war
explain how nature and nurture affect the development and later the productivity of an individual.
Amesalu Reply
nature is an hereditary factor while nurture is an environmental factor which constitute an individual personality. so if an individual's parent has a deviant behavior and was also brought up in an deviant environment, observation of the behavior and the inborn trait we make the individual deviant.
Samuel
I am taking this course because I am hoping that I could somehow learn more about my chosen field of interest and due to the fact that being a PsyD really ignites my passion as an individual the more I hope to learn about developing and literally explore the complexity of my critical thinking skills
Zyryn Reply
good👍
Jonathan
and having a good philosophy of the world is like a sandwich and a peanut butter 👍
Jonathan
generally amnesi how long yrs memory loss
Kelu Reply
interpersonal relationships
Abdulfatai Reply
What would be the best educational aid(s) for gifted kids/savants?
Heidi Reply
treat them normal, if they want help then give them. that will make everyone happy
Saurabh
What are the treatment for autism?
Magret Reply
hello. autism is a umbrella term. autistic kids have different disorder overlapping. for example. a kid may show symptoms of ADHD and also learning disabilities. before treatment please make sure the kid doesn't have physical disabilities like hearing..vision..speech problem. sometimes these
Jharna
continue.. sometimes due to these physical problems..the diagnosis may be misdiagnosed. treatment for autism. well it depends on the severity. since autistic kids have problems in communicating and adopting to the environment.. it's best to expose the child in situations where the child
Jharna
child interact with other kids under doc supervision. play therapy. speech therapy. Engaging in different activities that activate most parts of the brain.. like drawing..painting. matching color board game. string and beads game. the more you interact with the child the more effective
Jharna
results you'll get.. please consult a therapist to know what suits best on your child. and last as a parent. I know sometimes it's overwhelming to guide a special kid. but trust the process and be strong and patient as a parent.
Jharna
Got questions? Join the online conversation and get instant answers!
Jobilize.com Reply

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Introductory statistics. OpenStax CNX. May 06, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11562/1.18
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Introductory statistics' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask