Skewness and Kurtosis in Binomial Distribution

Poisson Distribution(P.D.)
The Poisson distribution can be obtained as a limiting case of binomial distribution under the following
conditions:

• n, the number of trails is very large i.e., when 𝑛 → ∞ .

• p, the probability of success for each trail is very small i.e. 𝑝 → 0,

• 𝑛𝑝 = 𝜆 (say) is finite.

The Probability distribution function is

𝒆−𝝀 𝝀𝒙
𝑷(𝑿 = 𝒙) =
𝒙!

Dr. Tanuj Kumar (VIT-AP)

Sum of probabilities
𝑒 −𝜆 𝜆𝑟 −𝜆 𝑒 −𝜆 𝜆 𝑒 −𝜆 𝜆2 𝑒 −𝜆 𝜆3
∑ 𝑃(𝑥) = ∑∞
𝑟=0 =𝑒 + 1! + + +…
𝑟! 2! 3!

𝜆2 𝜆3
= 𝑒 −𝜆 [1+𝜆+ 2! + 3!
+…]=𝑒 −𝜆 [𝑒 𝜆 ]=1.

Therefore, sum of probabilities is one.

• Mean of the Poisson distribution

Mean (µ) = E(X) =∑∞

𝑥=0 𝑥𝑃(𝑥)

𝑒 −𝜆 𝜆𝑥
= ∑∞
𝑥=0 𝑥 𝑥!
=𝜆

Variance (𝝈𝟐 ) = 𝜆

Example:
1. A car-hire firm has two cars which it hires out day by day. The number of demands for a car
on each day is distributed as a Poisson distribution with mean 1.5. Calculate the proportion of
days
a) on which there is no demand
b) on which demand is refused.

Solution:

• Given the mean as 𝜆 = 1.5

𝑒 −𝜆 𝜆𝑥
𝑃(𝑋 = 𝑥) =
𝑥!
𝑒 −1.5 (1.5)0
(i) P(no demand)=P(x=0) = = 𝑒 −1.5 = 0.2231
0!

(ii) Some demand is refused if the number of demands is more than two P(demand
refused)=P(r>2)

=1-[P(0)+P(1)+P(2)]
𝑒 −1.5 (1.5)0 𝑒 −1.5 (1.5)1 𝑒 −1.5 (1.5)2
=1-[ 0!
+ 1!
+ 2!
]

=1-𝑒 −1.5 [1+1.5+1.125]=0.1913

Practice problems:
1. A manufacture of cotter clips know that 5% of his product is defective. If he sells clips in boxes
of 100 and guarantees that not more than 10 clips will be defective. What is the probability
that a box will fail to meet the guarantee quality?
(answer: 0.0137)
2. The probability that an individual suffers a bad reaction from an injection is 0.001. Determine
the probability that out of 2000 individuals
(a) three (b) more than two
will suffer the reaction.

Dr. Tanuj Kumar (VIT-AP)

( answers: (a)0.18044 (b) 0.3233 )

3. If 2% of light bulbs are defective. Find

(i). at least one is defective.
(ii). Exactly 7 are defective.
(iii). P(1<x<8) in a sample of 100.

(answers: (i) 0.8647 (ii) 0.0034 (iii) 0.593 )

Moment generating function of a Poisson Distribution (P.D.)

• If X is a poison distribution, then its moment generation function is

𝑡 −1)
𝑒 𝜆(𝑒 .
1
Skewness:-
√𝜆
1
Kurtosis:- 3+ 𝜆

Dr. Tanuj Kumar (VIT-AP)