ABSTRACT
This lab requires readers to use what they learned in Chapter 4: Discrete Probability Distributions and Chapter 5: Continuous Probability Distributions to examine three multipart clinical and public health practice problems using the three probability distributions (binomial, Poisson, normal). The lab also includes a recap of how the distributions are related and how to calculate the mean and standard deviation for binomial, Poisson, and normal random variables. Users are encouraged to complete problems by hand, using statistical tables provided in the appendix for the binomial (Table A.1), Poisson (Table A.2), and standard normal (Table A.3) distributions. This is the only lab in which use of a statistical software program is discouraged; however, checking answers using statistical software is encouraged. These foundational concepts related to discrete and continuous probability distributions are necessary to understanding the concepts in future chapters, and hand calculations ensure that users understand probability distributions and the use of statistical tables to calculate p-values.
