Week 3 Post (300+ words):

Think of some discrete random variable you observe on a regular basis. For example, it could be the (rounded) number of hours you sleep, how many gallons of gas are in your car when you get into it, how many boxes of cereal are in your house, how many days between grocery shopping, etc. (just make sure it takes only integer values). Try to list all of the possible values that this discrete random variable can take. If you can, collect some frequency data – give the relative frequency table and use this as an estimate of the probability distribution. Calculate the expected value and the standard deviation for this probability distribution. Interpret these parameters, and discuss whether they make sense based on your experience.
Week 4 Responses (100+ words, x2):

Look at your classmates’ distribution. Is there any well-known distribution that could be used to model their random phenomenon? Some well-known discrete distributions are: Uniform, Bernoulli, Binomial, Geometric, and Poisson (but there are others). Explain why this distribution might be appropriate. Post a picture of the discrete distribution and a histogram of the frequency data from the original post, and comment on what is similar and different. Are there any outliers that, if removed, would make the frequency data match the distribution really well?