Suppose the probability of a power outage at a nuclear power plant on a single day is the same every day of the year. Also the probability of having a power outage on a single day does not increase or decrease the probability of a power outage on another day. Which of the following distributions would you use to determine the probability that a power outage will occur next Monday?
A) binomial distribution
B) Poisson distribution
C) both of the above
D) none of the above

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Since the probability of a power outage is the same every day of the year and the occurrence of an outage on one day does not affect the probability of an outage on another day, the situation can be modeled by a Poisson distribution. The Poisson distribution models the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time, given that the events occur independently and at a constant rate. In this case, we can model the probability of a power outage occurring on Monday as a Poisson distribution with a parameter that represents the average number of outages that occur each day.

Suppose the Probability of a Power Outage at a Nuclear