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Interpretation of strong peak at mean in Gaussian/Poisson histogram

Posted 10 years ago

Howdy all! My first posting since comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica days!

I recently acquired a data-logging Geiger counter and have been fitting the time-series data (total counts per 1 minute interval). Since the numbers well exceed 1, the Poisson distribution I expect will look quite Gaussian. I bin the count rates then fit the data. The distributions are as expected EXCEPT that I keep finding in finer-scale histograms of the counts-per-minute data a much-larger-than-expected narrow peak right at the peak of the histogram.
(In graphic attached: red=Poisson, green=Gaussian.) Being a naive theoretical non-nuclear physicist, I'm puzzled. Can someone explain my data to me? :) Perhaps I am regressing to the normal (a pun, not an interpretation)?

Thanks! DMW

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POSTED BY: David Wood
5 Replies
Posted 10 years ago
POSTED BY: Jim Baldwin
POSTED BY: Daniel Lichtblau
POSTED BY: David Wood
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POSTED BY: David Wood

Hard to say much without the raw data. Possibly an accident of where the bin boundaries are drawn?

POSTED BY: Daniel Lichtblau
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