Tips for guessing what distribution a variable (or set of values) might have
People often assume that the frequency with which a variable will take on different values (i.e., probability distribution) is likely to follow a bell curve (i.e., a normal distribution); this is often a mistake. Instead, consider these rules of thumb for deciding which probability distribution to use as a model in different situations:
(1) Binomial - when flipping coins
Number of occurrences out of a fixed nu...
More