STAT 400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Binomial Distribution, Spark Plug, Bernoulli Trial

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Statistics and Probability
• Course: STAT 400
• Professor: Tim Pilachowski

Document Summary

Stat 400, section 3. 5, hypergeometric and negative binomial distributions. Recall the definition of bernoulli trials which make up a binomial experiment: The number of trials, n, in an experiment is fixed in advance. Suppose that a box contains 3 blue blocks and 2 yellow blocks. Picking blocks without replacement was not a binomial experiment. Picking blocks with replacement was a binomial experiment. But in practice, selections are usually made without replacement in situations where our rule of thimb does not apply. The same student is not counted twice; there is no need to test the same spark plug again; it is unlikely that a person wants to answer the same survey questions more than once. So the question becomes, is there a way to calculate these probabilities, without having to go through a lot of rigamarole like extensive tree diagrams and asking how many are left to pick from? . [rigamarole: (noun): a complex and sometimes ritualistic procedure]