Exam P – Distributions and Other Useful Formulas: Page 1

Distribution Parameters and and other

Name and Domains important facts
Binomial  Approximation to
(Bernoulli if hypergeometric if
)
 Items are chosen with
replacement
Hypergeometric  Very similar to
binomial: and
sample size
population
size  is the finite
subgroup population correction
size factor
 Items are chosen
without replacement
Poisson Approximation to
binomial for large and
small
Geometric  Negative binomial
(number of with
failures before  Memoryless
first success)
Geometric  Negative binomial
(number of with (for
trials including alternate form)
first success)  Memoryless
Negative For number of trials
Binomial including the th success,
(failures before define .
th success)
Exam P – Distributions and Other Useful Formulas: Page 2

Distribution Parameters and and other

Name and Domains important facts
Uniform
(Discrete)

Uniform
(Continuous)

Exponential 
(Gamma with  Memoryless
) form: form: form: form: 
 Median =
 Waiting time for
Poisson events

Gamma form: form: form: form:

form: form: form:

form:

Normal and is the

( ) standard normal
Exam P – Distributions and Other Useful Formulas: Page 3

Distribution Parameters and and other

Name and Domains important facts

Lognormal Let , Let

Then if ,
.

Pareto

Weibull

Beta

Chi-Squared A complete mess. See Gamma with form: form: form:  , df = 1; for
parameters and and
domains column. ; has  If ,
form: form:
form:

Bivariate Let , . Then

Normal

Switch the variables around to get the conditional expected value and
variance for and .
Exam P – Distributions and Other Useful Formulas: Page 4

Multinomial (
variables)

Bivariate Let be the region in the -plane. Then . If is a rectangle with sides parallel to the axes in
Uniform
, then and are independent and uniformly distributed in and ,
respectively.