Better know a distribution: the Poisson distribution

Linear Digressions

• Episode: Better know a distribution: the Poisson distribution
• Website: Linear Digressions
• Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/udacity-linear-digressions?format=xml
• Duration: 00:31:51
• Published: 2020-03-02 03:55

This is a re-release of an episode that originally ran on October 21, 2018. The Poisson distribution is a probability distribution function used to for events that happen in time or space. It’s super handy because it’s pretty simple to use and is applicable for tons of things—there are a lot of interesting processes that boil down to “events that happen in time or space.” This episode is a quick introduction to the distribution, and then a focus on two of our favorite everyday applications: using the Poisson distribution to identify supernovas and study army deaths from horse kicks.