A professor receives, on average, 24.7 e-mails from students the day before the midterm exam. To compute the probability of receiving at least 10 e-mails on such a day, he will use what type of probability distribution?
A) Binomial distribution
B) Poisson distribution
C) Hypergeometric distribution
D) None of the above.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Poisson distribution is the best choice for this scenario since it models events that occur randomly over a continuous interval of time or space, such as the number of emails received in a day. The binomial distribution models events that have a fixed number of trials with a binary outcome (e.g. flipping a coin), while the hypergeometric distribution models events in a finite population without replacement (e.g. drawing cards from a deck). Therefore, neither the binomial nor hypergeometric distribution would be appropriate for the scenario described.

A Professor Receives, on Average, 24