1 Which of the following would you expect the Poisson distri

1.       Which of the following would you expect the Poisson distribution to be a good approximation for?

Runners crossing the finish line in the Boston Marathon

Arrival times of the students in school

Arrival times of the bus to your stop at school

None of the above would the Poisson distribution be a good approximation

Solution

Correct Answer:

Runners crossing the finish line in the Boston Marathon

Explanation:

Poisson distribution is a good fit in those cases where events happen independent of each other. In the given case also, crossing the finish line by one marathon runner does not affect the probability of crossing the finish line by other runner. In a marathon race, few will cross the line early, some of the others will cross the line later and rest will also cross the line. All these events will be spread across the distribution. Thus, it is a typical example of Poisson distribution.