exponential distribution

exponential distribution (plural exponential distributions)

1. (statistics) Any of a class of continuous probability distributions used to model the time between events that occur independently at a constant average rate.
   • 1998, Vijay Singh, Entropy-Based Parameter Estimation in Hydrology, Kluwer Academic, page 49:

     The exponential distribution is a basic distribution for constructing a number of other distributions. For example, the gamma distribution is obtained from the distribution of the sum of random variables where each variable follows an exponential distribution.

   • 1999, G. Latouche, V. Ramaswami, Introduction to Matrix Analytic Methods in Stochastic Modeling, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, page 33:

     In addition, PH distributions provide a simple framework to demonstrate how one can extend many simple results on exponential distributions to more complex models without losing computational tractability.

   • 2012, Kenneth S. Stephens, Reliability Data Analysis with Excel and Minitab, ASQ Quality Press, page 145:

     The exponential distribution was introduced briefly in Chapter 3 in connection with the Poisson discrete probability distribution function. There it was shown that if the number of failures in a given time period t was Poisson distributed, then the time to failure is distributed as an exponential distribution.

• (probability distribution): negative exponential distribution

• Poisson distribution
• Poisson process