Physics307L:People/Knockel/Lab3: Difference between revisions
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== Poisson Statistics Summary == | == Poisson Statistics Summary == | ||
When counting random events that rarely occur, the Poisson distribution is theorized to be the parent distribution describing the probability of obtaining x number of counts. I want to test this theory with real data of counts of random events (I assume these events to be detections of cosmic radiation, but I am not sure). I also want to compare the Poisson distribution to another distribution called the Gaussian distribution. | When counting random events that rarely occur, the Poisson distribution is theorized to be the parent distribution describing the probability of obtaining x number of counts. I want to test this theory with real data of counts of random events (I assume these events to be detections of cosmic radiation, but I am not sure). I also want to compare the Poisson distribution to another distribution called the Gaussian distribution for many trials where each trial has a different probability that a count will occur during a unit time. | ||
A large amount of systematic error was present, but I still concluded that the Poisson worked better than terrible. There really isn't too much qualitative stuff for me to report, but | A large amount of systematic error was present, but I still concluded that the Poisson worked better than terrible. There really isn't too much qualitative stuff for me to report, but when the average counts per unit time was small, 0.077(5), the PoissonGoodnessOfFit/GaussianGoodnessOfFit was 5. Measuring GoodnessOfFit was difficult for me, and I could not think of a way to report its uncertainty. | ||
For a much better explanation of this lab and cool graphs, see the following link: | |||
[[Physics307L:People/Knockel/Notebook/071010|link to my Poisson statistics notebook]] | [[Physics307L:People/Knockel/Notebook/071010|link to my Poisson statistics notebook]] | ||
Revision as of 16:30, 22 October 2007
Poisson Statistics Summary
When counting random events that rarely occur, the Poisson distribution is theorized to be the parent distribution describing the probability of obtaining x number of counts. I want to test this theory with real data of counts of random events (I assume these events to be detections of cosmic radiation, but I am not sure). I also want to compare the Poisson distribution to another distribution called the Gaussian distribution for many trials where each trial has a different probability that a count will occur during a unit time.
A large amount of systematic error was present, but I still concluded that the Poisson worked better than terrible. There really isn't too much qualitative stuff for me to report, but when the average counts per unit time was small, 0.077(5), the PoissonGoodnessOfFit/GaussianGoodnessOfFit was 5. Measuring GoodnessOfFit was difficult for me, and I could not think of a way to report its uncertainty.
For a much better explanation of this lab and cool graphs, see the following link:
