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Wolfram|Alpha Statistics and Probability Symbolic Computations

WolframAlpha: PDF(X+Y) where X and Y are iid Poisson(lambda)

Posted 11 years ago

I'm trying to play around with two random variables and I can't get wolfram alpha to parse my input. I've tried something really simple that like `PDF(X+Y) where X and Y are iid Poisson(lambda)` trying to get wolfram alpha to tell me that this is Poisson(2*lambda) or even just give me the joint cdf or pdf. all I can get out is `Using closest Wolfram\|Alpha interpretation: Poisson(lambda)` I really want the distribution of `X/(X+Y) where X and Y are iid Poisson(lambda)` but I figured I would start small. any ideas what I could try to help it interpret my input?

POSTED BY: Jonathan Anderson

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Posted 11 years ago

thanks seth. I've tried a few other ways too. Unfortunately this has also been timing out on me. (maybe if i restrict the domain to be x > 0 and y > 0 it would work) P[ X/(X+Y) < f ] --> exp(-2lambda) sum_{y=0}^{+inf} sum_{x=0}^{floor[ f/(1-f) * y ]} lambda^(x+y)/(x!*y!)

POSTED BY: Jonathan Anderson

Posted 11 years ago

So, I have bad news. Even if you could develop a syntax that would persuade WolframAlpha to try to compute the PDF of distribution of `X/(X+Y) where X and Y are iid Poisson(lambda)` , WA is going to time out on the computation. I just tried running it on actual Mathematica for a few minutes on a reasonably powerful machine and got nowhere. Also, the domain of the Poisson distribution includes 0. So, don't we have a division by zero problem in your transformation? (which might be why Mathematica is unhappy when it tries to compute the PDF).

POSTED BY: Seth Chandler

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