Alecu Ana-Alexia

1222A

Poisson’s Distribution of Radioactive Decay

The aim of this experiment is to show that the number of pulses counted during identical time
intervals by a counter tube which bears a fixed distance to a long-lived radiation emitter
correspond to a Poisson’s distribution. A special characteristic of the Poisson’s distribution
can be observed in the case of a small number of counts : n < 20. The distribution is
unsymmetrical, i.e. the maximum can be found among small-er numbers of pulses than the
mean value. In order to show this unsymmetry the experiment is carried out with a short
counting period and a sufficiently large gap between the emitter and the counter tube so that
the average number of pulses counted becomes sufficiently small.

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Alecu Ana-Alexia
1222A

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Alecu Ana-Alexia
1222A

The Poisson distribution is characterized by two parameters: the mean (λ) and the standard
deviation (σ). The mean is the average number of events that are expected to occur, and the
standard deviation is a measure of the variation in the number of events.

In the experiment shown in the image, the mean number of events is 2.12363. This means
that on average, two events are expected to occur in each trial.

• p = exp(-lambda).*lambda.^n./factorial(n): This computes the Poisson

probabilities for each count n using the Poisson probability mass function.

• p = p.*sum(F): This scales the Poisson probabilities by the total frequency of the
observed data. It ensures that the total area under the Poisson distribution matches the total
observed frequency.

• y=[F' p']: This creates a matrix y by concatena9ng the observed frequencies F and the
calculated Poisson probabili9es p.