Question

Audrey, an astronomer is searching for extra-solar planets using the technique of relativistic lensing. Though there are believed to be a very large number of planets that can be found this way, actually finding one takes time and luck; and finding one planet does not help at all with finding planets of other stars in the same part of the sky. Audrey is good at it, and finds one planet at a time, on average once every three months. a.) Find the expected value and

Answer 1

Answer:

- the expected value is 8

- the standard deviation is 2.8284

Explanation:

Given the data in the question;

The model N(t), the number of planets found up to time t, as a poisson process,

∴ N(t) has distribution of poisson distribution with parameter (λt)

so

the mean is;

λ = 1 every month = 1/3 per month

E[N(t)] = λt

E[N(t)] = (1/3)(24)

E[N(t)] = 8

Therefore, the expected value is 8

For poisson process, Variance and mean are the same,

Var[N(t)] = Var[N(24)]

Var[N(t)] = E[N(24)]

Var[N(t)] = 8

so the standard deviation will be;

σ[N(24)] = √(Var[N(t)] )

σ[N(24)] = √(8 )

σ[N(24)] = 2.8284

Therefore, the standard deviation is 2.8284