The Poisson distribution is a discrete distribution.

It is often used as a model for the number of events (such as the number of telephone calls at a business, number of customers in waiting lines, number of defects in a given surface area, airplane arrivals, or the number of accidents at an intersection) in a specific time period. It is also useful in ecological studies, e.g., to model the number of prairie dogs found in a square mile of prairie. The major difference between Poisson and Binomial distributions is that the Poisson does not have a fi ed number of trials. Instead, it uses the fi ed interval of time or space in which the number of successes is recorded. Parameters! The mean is . The variance is .

is the parameter which indicates the average number of events in the given time interval. Ex.1. On an average Friday, a waitress gets no tip from get no tip from " customers this Friday. customers. Find the probabi!ity that she wi!!

The waitress averages " customers that leave no tip on #rida$s! % ". &andom 'ariable ! The number of customers that leave her no tip this #rida$. (e are interested in P() % *). Ex. # $uring a typica! footba!! game, a coach can expect %.# in&uries. Find the probabi!ity that the team wi!! have at most 1 in&ury in this game. + coach can e pect ,.- injuries ! % ,.-. &andom 'ariable ! The number of injuries the team has in this game. (e are interested in .

Ex. %. ' sma!! !ife insurance company has determined that on the average it receives ( death c!aims per day. Find the probabi!ity that the company receives at !east seven death c!aims on a random!y se!ected day. P( *) = . - P( /) = 0.,1,/1* Ex. ). The number of traffic accidents that occurs on a particu!ar stretch of road during a month fo!!ows a Poisson distribution with a mean of *.). Find the probabi!ity that !ess than two accidents wi!! occur on this stretch of road during a random!y se!ected month. P( < -) = P( = 0) + P( = .) = 0.0002/0

Poisson distribution examp!es

.. The number of road construction projects that ta3e place at an$ one time in a certain cit$ follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of ,. #ind the probabilit$ that e actl$ five road construction projects are currentl$ ta3ing place in this cit$. (0..002.1) -. The number of road construction projects that ta3e place at an$ one time in a certain cit$ follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of *. #ind the probabilit$ that more than four road construction projects are currentl$ ta3ing place in the cit$. (0.2-*002) ,. The number of traffic accidents that occur on a particular stretch of road during a month follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of *./. #ind the probabilit$ that less than three accidents will occur ne t month on this stretch of road. (0.0.2*"*) 4. The number of traffic accidents that occur on a particular stretch of road during a month follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of *. #ind the probabilit$ of observing e actl$ three accidents on this stretch of road ne t month. (0.0"-.-1) ". The number of traffic accidents that occur on a particular stretch of road during a month follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of /.2. #ind the probabilit$ that the ne t two months will both result in four accidents each occurring on this stretch of road. (0.00124/) /. 5uppose the number of babies born during an 2-hour shift at a hospital6s maternit$ wing follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of / an hour. #ind the probabilit$ that five babies are born during a particular .-hour period in this maternit$ wing. (0../0/-,) *. The universit$ polic$ department must write, on average, five tic3ets per da$ to 3eep department revenues at budgeted levels. 5uppose the number of tic3ets written per da$ follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of 2.2 tic3ets per da$. #ind the probabilit$ that less than si tic3ets are written on a randoml$ selected da$ from this distribution. (0..-2,2*) 2. The number of goals scored at 5tate 7ollege hoc3e$ games follows a Poisson distribution with a mean of , goals per game. #ind the probabilit$ that each of four randoml$ selected 5tate 7ollege hoc3e$ games resulted in si goals being scored. (.00000"4/)