"RADIOACTIVE DECAY EXPERIMENT, POISSON DISTRIBUTION. NONLINEAR REGRESSION. The Poisson Distribution Function, fp[x]=u^x*exp(-u)/fact(x), is used to estimate the likelihood of a single event (radioactive decay) that is very unlikely, however, the number of participants is very large (Avagadro's number of atoms) so the mean value is a constant. p->0 but n->∞ so mean u (= p * n) = constant. To determine if Poisson distribution fit (x,f) data to its distribution function. *** Answer(s) to Problem(s) **** (c) Copyright PCSCC, Inc., 1993Data and variable values are already entered. Type S to start fit. Use default value of tolerance, just type (enter). The mean value, U, is 6.47. Type R to list results. Compare calculated with observed. Does the data follow the Poisson distribution? Type any key to exit. ||For the radioactive decay of U(238), data in (sampling time, counts) or (x,f) pairs are: (0,2), (1,10), (2,32), (3,68), (4,112), (5, 147), (6,160), (7,145), (8,116), (9,86), (10,53), (11,31), (12,18), (13,9), (14,4), (15,1), (16,1). Does this data conform to a Poisson distribution? (from Norris, A. C., Computational Chemistry, Wiley, New York, 1981). Type comma key to see entire comment. Type (F2) to return to application file."
