Data Analysis with R, Second Edition - Second Edition

Parameters

We use probability distributions to describe the behavior of random variables because they make it easy to compute with and give us a lot of information about how a variable behaves. Before we perform computations with probability distributions, we have to specify the parameters of these distributions. These parameters will determine exactly what the distribution looks like and how it will behave.

For example, the behavior of both a 6-sided die and a 12-sided die is modeled with a uniform distribution. Even though the behavior of both the dice is modeled as uniform distributions, the behavior of each is a little different. To further specify the behavior of each distribution, we detail its parameter; in the case of the (discrete) ...