Thread: Poisson question

Changes in airport procedures require considerable planning. Arrival rates of aircraft are important factors that must be taken into account. Suppose small aircraft arrive at a certain airport, according to a Poisson process, at the rate of 6 per hour. Thus, the Poisson parameter for arrivals over a period of hours is μ = 6t.

If we define a working day as 12 hours, what is the probability that at least 75 small aircraft arrive during a working day?


Ok, the new

But how do I find ?

I know that

but it seems very time consuming to have to find

Is there a faster way of solving the problem?

Do you have a calculator? ...

I went ahead and used Excel to solve the problem, but if there's some sort of shortcut or something that allows for the answer to be found quickly by hand I'd love to know it. Thanks

Originally Posted by downthesun01

Changes in airport procedures require considerable planning. Arrival rates of aircraft are important factors that must be taken into account. Suppose small aircraft arrive at a certain airport, according to a Poisson process, at the rate of 6 per hour. Thus, the Poisson parameter for arrivals over a period of hours is μ = 6t.

If we define a working day as 12 hours, what is the probability that at least 75 small aircraft arrive during a working day?


Ok, the new

But how do I find ?

I know that

but it seems very time consuming to have to find

Is there a faster way of solving the problem?

The probability that at least 75 aircraft arriving is indeed one minus the probability of 74 or fewer arriving, so you would need to calculate:



which is too tedious to compute by hand, so you will probably want to use the normal approximation if you have been shown it.

CB