Discrete Probability

Prof Dr Zahid Ali Chanar

Hyper Geometric Distribution
• For the Binomial Distribution to be applied, the probability of the
success must stay the same for each trial.
• If a student is selected randomly from the class of 40 students then
probability will be 1/40; if the second student is selected then again
the probability will remain same i.e., 1/40. This is because sampling is
done with replacement.
• Most sampling is done without replacement. Thus, if the population is
small , the probability of each observation will change.
• In above example if sampling is done without replacement, then
probability of selecting second student will be 1/39
• Since the probability of the success does not the remain the same
from trial to trial when sampling is from a relatively small population
without replacement, the binomial distribution should not be used.
Instead, The Hypergeometric Distribution is used.
Hypergeometric Distribution is used when:
1. If sample is selected from a finite population without replacement
and
2. If the size of the sample n is more than 5 % of the size of the
population N