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Probability Generating Function
In probability theory, the probability generating function of a discrete random variable is a power series representation (the generating function) of the probability mass function of the random variable. Probability generating functions are often employed for their succinct description of the sequence of probabilities Pr(''X'' = ''i'') in the probability mass function for a random variable ''X'', and to make available the well-developed theory of power series with non-negative coefficients. Definition Univariate case If ''X'' is a discrete random variable taking values ''x'' in the non-negative integers , then the ''probability generating function'' of ''X'' is defined as G(z) = \operatorname (z^X) = \sum_^ p(x) z^x, where p is the probability mass function of X. Note that the subscripted notations G_X and p_X are often used to emphasize that these pertain to a particular random variable X, and to its distribution. The power series converges absolutely at least for all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Probability Theory
Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set of axioms of probability, axioms. Typically these axioms formalise probability in terms of a probability space, which assigns a measure (mathematics), measure taking values between 0 and 1, termed the probability measure, to a set of outcomes called the sample space. Any specified subset of the sample space is called an event (probability theory), event. Central subjects in probability theory include discrete and continuous random variables, probability distributions, and stochastic processes (which provide mathematical abstractions of determinism, non-deterministic or uncertain processes or measured Quantity, quantities that may either be single occurrences or evolve over time in a random fashion). Although it is no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Variance
In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expected value of the squared deviation from the mean of a random variable. The standard deviation (SD) is obtained as the square root of the variance. Variance is a measure of dispersion, meaning it is a measure of how far a set of numbers is spread out from their average value. It is the second central moment of a distribution, and the covariance of the random variable with itself, and it is often represented by \sigma^2, s^2, \operatorname(X), V(X), or \mathbb(X). An advantage of variance as a measure of dispersion is that it is more amenable to algebraic manipulation than other measures of dispersion such as the expected absolute deviation; for example, the variance of a sum of uncorrelated random variables is equal to the sum of their variances. A disadvantage of the variance for practical applications is that, unlike the standard deviation, its units differ from the random variable, which is why the standard devi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Poisson Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the Poisson distribution () is a discrete probability distribution that expresses the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time if these events occur with a known constant mean rate and independently of the time since the last event. It can also be used for the number of events in other types of intervals than time, and in dimension greater than 1 (e.g., number of events in a given area or volume). The Poisson distribution is named after French mathematician Siméon Denis Poisson. It plays an important role for discrete-stable distributions. Under a Poisson distribution with the expectation of ''λ'' events in a given interval, the probability of ''k'' events in the same interval is: :\frac . For instance, consider a call center which receives an average of ''λ ='' 3 calls per minute at all times of day. If the calls are independent, receiving one does not change the probability of when the next on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Geometric Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the geometric distribution is either one of two discrete probability distributions: * The probability distribution of the number X of Bernoulli trials needed to get one success, supported on \mathbb = \; * The probability distribution of the number Y=X-1 of failures before the first success, supported on \mathbb_0 = \ . These two different geometric distributions should not be confused with each other. Often, the name ''shifted'' geometric distribution is adopted for the former one (distribution of X); however, to avoid ambiguity, it is considered wise to indicate which is intended, by mentioning the support explicitly. The geometric distribution gives the probability that the first occurrence of success requires k independent trials, each with success probability p. If the probability of success on each trial is p, then the probability that the k-th trial is the first success is :\Pr(X = k) = (1-p)^p for k=1,2,3,4,\dots The above form of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Negative Binomial Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the negative binomial distribution, also called a Pascal distribution, is a discrete probability distribution that models the number of failures in a sequence of independent and identically distributed Bernoulli trials before a specified/constant/fixed number of successes r occur. For example, we can define rolling a 6 on some dice as a success, and rolling any other number as a failure, and ask how many failure rolls will occur before we see the third success (r=3). In such a case, the probability distribution of the number of failures that appear will be a negative binomial distribution. An alternative formulation is to model the number of total trials (instead of the number of failures). In fact, for a specified (non-random) number of successes , the number of failures is random because the number of total trials is random. For example, we could use the negative binomial distribution to model the number of days (random) a certain machin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Fair Coin
In probability theory and statistics, a sequence of Independence (probability theory), independent Bernoulli trials with probability 1/2 of success on each trial is metaphorically called a fair coin. One for which the probability is not 1/2 is called a biased or unfair coin. In theoretical studies, the assumption that a coin is fair is often made by referring to an ideal coin. John Edmund Kerrich performed experiments in coin flipping and found that a coin made from a wooden disk about the size of a Crown (British coin), crown and coated on one side with lead landed heads (wooden side up) 679 times out of 1000. In this experiment the coin was tossed by balancing it on the forefinger, flipping it using the thumb so that it spun through the air for about a foot before landing on a flat cloth spread over a table. Edwin Thompson Jaynes claimed that when a coin is caught in the hand, instead of being allowed to bounce, the physical bias in the coin is insignificant compared to the met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Bernoulli Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the Bernoulli distribution, named after Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, is the discrete probability distribution of a random variable which takes the value 1 with probability p and the value 0 with probability q = 1-p. Less formally, it can be thought of as a model for the set of possible outcomes of any single experiment that asks a yes–no question. Such questions lead to outcome (probability), outcomes that are Boolean-valued function, Boolean-valued: a single bit whose value is success/yes and no, yes/Truth value, true/Binary code, one with probability ''p'' and failure/no/false (logic), false/Binary code, zero with probability ''q''. It can be used to represent a (possibly biased) coin toss where 1 and 0 would represent "heads" and "tails", respectively, and ''p'' would be the probability of the coin landing on heads (or vice versa where 1 would represent tails and ''p'' would be the probability of tails). In particular, unfair co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Binomial Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the binomial distribution with parameters and is the discrete probability distribution of the number of successes in a sequence of statistical independence, independent experiment (probability theory), experiments, each asking a yes–no question, and each with its own Boolean-valued function, Boolean-valued outcome (probability), outcome: ''success'' (with probability ) or ''failure'' (with probability ). A single success/failure experiment is also called a Bernoulli trial or Bernoulli experiment, and a sequence of outcomes is called a Bernoulli process; for a single trial, i.e., , the binomial distribution is a Bernoulli distribution. The binomial distribution is the basis for the binomial test of statistical significance. The binomial distribution is frequently used to model the number of successes in a sample of size drawn with replacement from a population of size . If the sampling is carried out without replacement, the draws ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Degenerate Distribution
In probability theory, a degenerate distribution on a measure space (E, \mathcal, \mu) is a probability distribution whose support is a null set with respect to \mu. For instance, in the -dimensional space endowed with the Lebesgue measure, any distribution concentrated on a -dimensional subspace with is a degenerate distribution on . This is essentially the same notion as a singular probability measure, but the term ''degenerate'' is typically used when the distribution arises as a limit of (non-degenerate) distributions. When the support of a degenerate distribution consists of a single point , this distribution is a Dirac measure in : it is the distribution of a deterministic random variable equal to with probability 1. This is a special case of a discrete distribution; its probability mass function equals 1 in and 0 everywhere else. In the case of a real-valued random variable, the cumulative distribution function of the degenerate distribution localized in is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Compound Poisson Process
A compound Poisson process is a continuous-time stochastic process with jumps. The jumps arrive randomly according to a Poisson process and the size of the jumps is also random, with a specified probability distribution. To be precise, a compound Poisson process, parameterised by a rate \lambda > 0 and jump size distribution ''G'', is a process \ given by :Y(t) = \sum_^ D_i where, \ is the counting variable of a Poisson process with rate \lambda, and \ are independent and identically distributed random variables, with distribution function ''G'', which are also independent of \.\, When D_i are non-negative integer-valued random variables, then this compound Poisson process is known as a stuttering Poisson process. Properties of the compound Poisson process The expected value of a compound Poisson process can be calculated using a result known as Wald's equation as: :\operatorname E(Y(t)) = \operatorname E(D_1 + \cdots + D_) = \operatorname E(N(t))\operatorname E(D_1) = ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Galton–Watson Process
The Galton–Watson process, also called the Bienaymé-Galton-Watson process or the Galton-Watson branching process, is a branching stochastic process arising from Francis Galton's statistical investigation of the extinction of family names. The process models family names as patrilineal (passed from father to son), while offspring are randomly either male or female, and names become extinct if the family name line dies out (holders of the family name die without male descendants). Galton's investigation of this process laid the groundwork for the study of branching processes as a subfield of probability theory, and along with these subsequent processes the Galton-Watson process has found numerous applications across population genetics, computer science, and other fields. History There was concern amongst the Victorians that aristocratic surnames were becoming extinct. In 1869, Galton published '' Hereditary Genius'', in which he treated the extinction of different social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Law Of Total Expectation
The proposition in probability theory known as the law of total expectation, the law of iterated expectations (LIE), Adam's law, the tower rule, and the smoothing property of conditional expectation, among other names, states that if X is a random variable whose expected value \operatorname(X) is defined, and Y is any random variable on the same probability space, then :\operatorname (X) = \operatorname ( \operatorname ( X \mid Y)), i.e., the expected value of the conditional expected value of X given Y is the same as the expected value of X. The conditional expected value \operatorname( X \mid Y ), with Y a random variable, is not a simple number; it is a random variable whose value depends on the value of Y. That is, the conditional expected value of X given the ''event'' Y = y is a number and it is a function of y. If we write g(y) for the value of \operatorname ( X \mid Y = y) then the random variable \operatorname( X \mid Y ) is g( Y ) . One special case states that if ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |