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Re: Related to Poisson

To: "Daniel Murphy" <chiefmurphy@gmail.com>, "Robert A LaBudde" <ral@lcfltd.com>
Subject: Re: Related to Poisson
From: "Overstreet, Jason" <joverstreet@hotwater.com>
Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 12:06:44 -0500
Cc: "Jewel Bright" <jwlbright@yahoo.com>, <s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu>
In-reply-to: <48f8cced0905120953u1402d725ne68fa253edc25a0b@mail.gmail.com>
References: <943894.90491.qm@web37901.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <0KJJ00A8NI83OL45@vms173003.mailsrvcs.net> <48f8cced0905120953u1402d725ne68fa253edc25a0b@mail.gmail.com>
Thread-index: AcnTIyZpqLJ8loJEQKuGnD9fAt+JLwAAHFiA
Thread-topic: [S] Related to Poisson

I smell some exponential and Erlang distributions lurking here….

 

 

 

From: s-news-owner@lists.biostat.wustl.edu [mailto:s-news-owner@lists.biostat.wustl.edu] On Behalf Of Daniel Murphy
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 11:54 AM
To: Robert A LaBudde
Cc: Jewel Bright; s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: [S] Related to Poisson

 

It is the scale factor that causes the probability distribution of X to not be Pois(lambda). The calculation is trivial. But I believe the original poster was searching for a name, and "Poisson", in the strictest sense, is not it.

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:38 AM, Robert A LaBudde <ral@lcfltd.com> wrote:

Suppose X = A*N, where A is a scalar constant and N ~ Pois(lambda).

Then P[X = x] = P[N = x/A] ~ Pois(lambda).

I.e., X has the same probability mass distribution as N, except for a scale factor of A on the assumed values.

I think you are thinking this problem is complex, when, in fact, it is trivial.



At 07:41 AM 5/12/2009, Jewel Bright wrote:

Folks:

I have a seemingly simple question, but cannot resolve it (at least without much of thinking and digging.

Suppose that "n" is a Poisson random variable drawn from the distribution with Poisson lambda "lambda". What is the distribution of the random variable A*n, where A is an arbitrary real number?

Please, note, I am not asking how to generate this random variable, I still remember how to multiply a set of numbers by a constant. I am asking about analytical form of this distribution, and about how to derive the distribution function (or density) in their analytical form.

A standard approach through the characteristic functions did not bring immediate success. I am sure there there are a lot of smart people in the list who would consider this problem very simple. Please, help.

Thanks in advance.

Jewel

 

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Robert A. LaBudde, PhD, PAS, Dpl. ACAFS  e-mail: ral@lcfltd.com
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