CHAP.

4]

SPECIAL

PROBABILITY

DISTRIBUTIONS

119

3. Exponential distribution.

f(x)
fJ.

{
(12

.:
1
a2

x>O x~O

1
a

M(t)

a a -

4. Weibull distribution.

f(x)

x>O x~O

5. Maxwell distribution.

f(x)

x>O x~O

2(2
\j~

Solved Problems
THE BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION 4.1. Find the probability that in tossing a fair coin three times there will appear heads, (b) 2 tails and 1 head, (c) at least 1 head, (d) not more than 1 tail.
Method 1. Let H denote "heads" and T denote "tails" and suppose that we designate HTH, for example, to mean head on first toss, tail on second toss and then head on third toss. Since 2 possibilities (head or tail) can occur on each toss, there are a total of (2)(2)(2) sible outcomes, i.e. sample points, in the sample space. These are HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, TTH, THH, THT, TTT For a fair coin these are assigned equal probabilities of 1/8 each. Thus
.J.

(a) 3

8 pos-

(a)
(b)

P(3 heads)

P(HHH)

8"

P(2 tails and 1 head)

P(HTT u TTH u THT) P(HTT)

+ P(TTH) + P(TlfT)

(o)

P(at least 1 head)

P(l, 2 or 3 heads) P(l head)

P(HTT u THT u TTH) P(HTT)

+ P(2 heads) + P(3 heads) + P(HHT u HTH u THH) + P(HHH) + P(THT) + P(TTH) + P(HHT) + P(HTH) + P(THH) + P(HHH) =

7 8