The student-t distribution, The chi-square distribution – HP 49g+ User Manual

Page 560

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Page 17-11

The Student-t distribution

The Student-t, or simply, the t-, distribution has one parameter

ν, known as the

degrees of freedom of the distribution. The probability distribution function
(pdf) is given by

<

<

−∞

+

Γ

+

Γ

=

+

t

t

t

f

,

)

1

(

)

2

(

)

2

1

(

)

(

2

1

2

ν

ν

πν

ν

ν


where

Γ(α) = (α-1)! is the GAMMA function defined in Chapter 3.


The calculator provides for values of the upper-tail (cumulative) distribution
function for the t-distribution, function UTPT, given the parameter

ν and the

value of t, i.e., UTPT(

ν,t). The definition of this function is, therefore,

=

=

=

t

t

t

T

P

dt

t

f

dt

t

f

t

UTPT

)

(

1

)

(

1

)

(

)

,

(ν


For example, UTPT(5,2.5) = 2.7245…E-2. Other probability calculations for
the t-distribution can be defined using the function UTPT, as follows:

• P(T<a) = 1 - UTPT(ν,a)
• P(a<T<b) = P(T<b) - P(T<a) = 1 - UTPT(ν,b) - (1 - UTPT(ν,a)) =

UTPT(

ν,a) - UTPT(ν,b)

• P(T>c) = UTPT(ν,c)


Examples: Given

ν = 12, determine:

P(T<0.5) = 1-UTPT(12,0.5) = 0.68694..

P(-0.5<T<0.5) = UTPT(12,-0.5)-UTPT(12,0.5) = 0.3738…

P(T> -1.2) = UTPT(12,-1.2) = 0.8733…

The Chi-square distribution

The Chi-square (

χ

2

) distribution has one parameter

ν, known as the degrees of

freedom. The probability distribution function (pdf) is given by

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