Binomial Distribution

The binomial distribution is a special discrete distribution where there are two distinct
complementary outcomes, a “success” and a “failure”.

CONDITIONS

We have a binomial experiment if ALL of the following four conditions are satisfied:

 The experiment consists of n identical trials.

 Each trial results in one of the two outcomes, called success and failure.

 The probability of success, denoted p, remains the same from trial to trial.

 The n trials are independent. That is, the outcome of any trial does not affect the outcome
of the others.

In short: An experiment with a fixed number of independent trials, each of which can only have two
possible outcomes.

 Some common notation for “success” that you may see will be p to represent the
probability of “success” and usually q=1−p to represent the probability of “failure”.

The Binomial Probability Distribution Function

 The probability of obtaining ‘k’ successes in ‘n’ independent trials of a binomial experiment,
where the probability of success is ‘p’, is given by

 We are interested in the problems where it is necessary to find P(X>r) or P(a<= X<= b).
Binomial Sum
𝒓

𝑩(𝒓; 𝒏, 𝒑) = ∑ 𝑷𝒓(𝒙; 𝒏, 𝒑)
𝒙=𝟎

 The best way to understand the effect of n and p on the shape of a binomial probability
distribution is to look at some histograms, so let's look at some possibilities.

Dr. Tanuj Kumar (VIT-AP)

  Watch what happens as the number of trials, n, increases:

 Interestingly, the distribution shape becomes roughly symmetric when n is large, even if p
isn't close to 0.5. This brings us to a key point:

 As the number of trials in a binomial experiment increases, the probability distribution

becomes bell-shaped. As a rule of thumb, if np(1-p)≥10, the distribution will be
approximately bell-shaped.

Example
 The Probability that the patient recovers from a rare blood disease is 0.4. If 15 people are
known to have contracted with this disease, what is the probability that
(a) at least 10 survive,
(b) from 3 to 8 survive, and
(c) exactly 5 survive.

 It is conjectured that an impurity exists in 30% of all drinking wells in a certain rural
community. In order to gain some insight into the true extent of the problem, it is
determined that some testing is necessary. It is too expensive to test all of the wells in the
area, so 10 are randomly selected for testing.
(a) What is the probability that exactly 3 wells have the impurity, assuming that the
conjecture is correct.
(b) What is the probability that more than 3 wells are impure.
(c) Find the mean and variance.

Dr. Tanuj Kumar (VIT-AP)