Re: Ask Dr. Random

[Miles Parker]

Let me be the first to say that I think the Poisson distribution would be a
perfect choice, even if it does sound a bit fishy!


Miles T. Parker
Software Engineer
The Brookings Institution  1775 Mass. Ave. NW  Washington, DC  20036
http://www.brook.edu/es/dynamics/models/ascape
mailto:address@hidden  voice 202.797.6136  fax 202.797.6319

> From: M Lang / S Railsback <address@hidden>
> Reply-To: address@hidden
> Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 11:38:32 -0800
> To: swarm modelling <address@hidden>
> Subject: Ask Dr. Random
> 
> Hey Sven (or anybody else that knows more about probability than I do):
> 
> I have a problem that I think would best be modeled using a Poisson
> distribution, which is not in the Random library.
> 
> The mean number of times per day a single fish is caught by fisherpeople
> is 0.5 (for example; there are a LOT of people fishing for hatchery
> trout at this site). I need to randomly draw the number of times each
> individual fish was caught in a day, which will be an integer of zero or
> greater. 
> 
> I believe this problem is best represented with the Poisson
> distribution, which models the number of times an event occurs within a
> specified time period, given the mean occurrence rate. (The exponential
> distribution would tell me the probability of a fish being caught at
> least once during a day, which is not what I want.)
> 
> This seems like a fairly common kind of problem. Has somebody
> implemented it already?
> 
> Steve
> -- 
> address@hidden
> Lang, Railsback & Assoc.
> 250 California Ave., Arcata CA 95521
> 707-822-0453; Fax 822-1868
> 
> 
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   Swarm-Modelling is for discussion of Simulation and Modelling techniques
   esp. using Swarm.  For list administration needs (esp. [un]subscribing),
   please send a message to <address@hidden> with "help" in the
   body of the message.
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