On Tue, 22 Feb 2000 16:33:16 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
< snip, a bunch of stuff I am not going to mention >
> ... Also, I'm just now reading up on discrete
> random variables and the various distributions associated with them.
> It mentions the cumulative probability function (is this the same
> as/related to the cumulative normal distribution?).
Terminology: "cumulative" means the sum (or integral) up to here on
the number line.
Thus, you can have the cumulative distribution or cumulative function
of any probability function -- discrete or continuous -- and this F(x)
will run from 0 to 1.0, for x ranging from "unbounded negative" to
"unbounded positive".
For discrete functions (for example, "number of 'heads' in 2
coin-flips), you usually add in all of the probability for that
number. However, for certain purposes, you might want to use the
mid-point of the range implied by that categorical response. For two
coin-flips, there are
0.25 responses with more heads than 1,
0.25 with fewer, and
the midpoint of the category with 1 head is 0.50 -- while
0.75 is the cumulative probability, for 1 or fewer.
--
Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html
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