Depending upon which text is consulted, a probability distribution function is any of:
- a probability distribution function,
- a cumulative distribution function,
- a probability mass function, or
- a probability density function.
The similar term probability function may mean any of the above and, in addition,
- a probability measure function, as in a probability space, where the domain of the function is the set of events.
Famous quotes containing the words probability, distribution and/or function:
“The probability of learning something unusual from a newspaper is far greater than that of experiencing it; in other words, it is in the realm of the abstract that the more important things happen in these times, and it is the unimportant that happens in real life.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“There is the illusion of time, which is very deep; who has disposed of it? Mor come to the conviction that what seems the succession of thought is only the distribution of wholes into causal series.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Uses are always much broader than functions, and usually far less contentious. The word function carries overtones of purpose and propriety, of concern with why something was developed rather than with how it has actually been found useful. The function of automobiles is to transport people and objects, but they are used for a variety of other purposes—as homes, offices, bedrooms, henhouses, jetties, breakwaters, even offensive weapons.”
—Frank Smith (b. 1928)