14 Statistics for mining engineering

0.810−2
0.005
f(x)

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Mo(x) E(x) x
Me(x)

Figure 1.5. A moderately asymmetric probability density function.

A few terms have been used here that need to be defined.

Skewness is a property of the probability distribution of a random variable. Its particular
cases are the symmetry and asymmetry of the shape of the probability mass/density function.
There are several measures of skewness in mathematical statistics but two are applied most
frequently. The first one is defined as:

⎡ ⎛ X − E (X ) ⎞ 3
⎤ E [( X − E ( X ))3 ]
γ1 = E ⎢ ⎜ ⎟ ⎥ = (1.35)
⎢⎣ ⎝ σ ( X ) ⎠ ⎥⎦ {E [( X − E ( X )) ]}
2 3/2

Someone suggested using the following ratio as a measure of skewness:

E ( ) − Mo( )
ϖ= (1.36)
σ( )

(Weisstein).
The skewness value can be positive, negative or zero. Qualitatively, a negative skew indicates
that the tail on the left side of the probability density function is longer than the one on the
right side and the bulk of the values (possibly including the median) lie to the right of the mean.
A positive skew indicates that the tail on the right side is longer than the one on the left side
and the bulk of the values lie to the left of the mean. A zero value indicates that the values
are relatively uniformly distributed on both sides of the mean, typically (but not necessarily)
implying a symmetric distribution.15
In availability investigations randomisation16 of the steady state availability is sometimes
done and it is presumed that beta distribution is a good model to describe its distribution
for a group of identical items. Obviously, this presumption needs to be verified. This is
similar when research concerns the utilisation of a given piece of equipment on a daily
basis. And here again the beta probability distribution17 is applied as a rule because it is sup-
ported on an [0, 1] interval. (Utilisation can also be expressed in percentages). Depending
on the values taken by parameters of this distribution, the shapes of the probability density

15
These considerations are correct provided that the probability distribution is not a multimodal one.
Such a distribution may occur if the population being investigated is not homogeneous. There are also
some further probability distributions for which the above regularities do not hold but these distribu-
tions are considered mainly in theory (e.g. heavy-tailed distributions).
16
Randomisation relies on making something random. Randomisation can concern different things (e.g.
the randomisation of an experiment) but here in our discussion a constant parameter is treated as a
random one.
17
This distribution is defined by formula (1.61).

Book.indb 14 12/9/2013 12:22:03 PM