Answer to Question #132923 in Statistics and Probability for Feeya

Question

In a study by Thomas et al. (A-14) the Poisson distribution was used to model the number of patients per month referred to an oncologist. The researchers use a rate of 15.8 patients per month that are referred to the oncologist. Use PHStat and a rate of 16 patients per month to calculate the probability that in a month

Answer 1

Let $\xi$ be a random variable. $\xi\text{ --- the number of patients per month referred to an oncologist}.$

$\xi\in \text{Poisson }(\lambda)\text{ where } \lambda=16\text{ (patients per month).}\\ P\{\xi=k\}=\frac{\lambda^k}{k!}e^{-\lambda}, k=0,1,2,\ldots\\ M\xi=\lambda.\\ \text{Using POISSON function in Excel we can calculate the probabilities:}$