exponential distribution

Definition

Any of a class of continuous probability distributions used to model the time between events that occur independently at a constant average rate.

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "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."
• "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."