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beta distribution

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Also known as beta distribution of the first kind

distributions defined on [0, 1] in terms of two positive parameters

Key facts

Notation
Beta( α , β )
Parameters
α > 0 shape ( real ), β > 0 shape ( real )
Support
x ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle x\in [0,1]\!} or x ∈ ( 0 , 1 ) {\displaystyle x\in (0,1)\!}
Cdf
I x ( α , β ) {\displaystyle I_{x}(\alpha ,\beta )\!} (the regularized incomplete beta function )
Mode
α − 1 α + β − 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {\alpha -1}{\alpha +\beta -2}}\!} for α , β > 1 Any value in the domain for α = β = 1 No mode if α <1 or β <1. Density diverges at 0 for α ≤ 1, and at 1 if β ≤ 1
Skewness
2 ( β − α ) α + β + 1 ( α + β + 2 ) α β {\displaystyle {\frac {2\,(\beta -\alpha ){\sqrt {\alpha +\beta +1}}}{(\alpha +\beta +2){\sqrt {\alpha \beta }}}}}
Excess kurtosis
6 [ ( α − β ) 2 ( α + β + 1 ) − α β ( α + β + 2 ) ] α β ( α + β + 2 ) ( α + β + 3 ) {\displaystyle {\frac {6[(\alpha -\beta )^{2}(\alpha +\beta +1)-\alpha \beta (\alpha +\beta +2)]}{\alpha \beta (\alpha +\beta +2)(\alpha +\beta +3)}}}
Entropy
ln ⁡ B ( α , β ) − ( α − 1 ) ψ ( α ) − ( β − 1 ) ψ ( β ) + ( α + β − 2 ) ψ ( α + β ) {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}\ln \mathrm {B} (\alpha ,\beta )-(\alpha -1)\psi (\alpha )-(\beta -1)\psi (\beta )\\[0.5em]{}+(\alpha +\beta -2)\psi (\alpha +\beta )\end{matrix}}}
Mgf
1 + ∑ k = 1 ∞ ( ∏ r = 0 k − 1 α + r α + β + r ) t k k ! {\displaystyle 1+\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }\left(\prod _{r=0}^{k-1}{\frac {\alpha +r}{\alpha +\beta +r}}\right){\frac {t^{k}}{k!}}}
Cf
1 F 1 ( α ; α + β ; i t ) {\displaystyle {}_{1}F_{1}(\alpha ;\alpha +\beta ;i\,t)\!} (see Confluent hypergeometric function )
Method of moments
α = ( E [ X ] ( 1 − E [ X ] ) V [ X ] − 1 ) E [ X ] {\displaystyle \alpha =\left({\frac {E[X](1-E[X])}{V[X]}}-1\right)E[X]} , β = ( E [ X ] ( 1 − E [ X ] ) V [ X ] − 1 ) ( 1 − E [ X ] ) {\displaystyle \beta =\left({\frac {E[X](1-E[X])}{V[X]}}-1\right)(1-E[X])}

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Commons category
Beta distribution
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In probability theory and statistics, the beta distribution is a family of continuous probability distributions defined on the interval [0, 1] or (0, 1) in terms of two positive parameters, denoted by alpha (α) and beta (β), that appear as exponents of the variable and its complement to 1, respectively, and control the shape of the distribution.

The beta distribution has been applied to model the behavior of random variables limited to intervals of finite length in a wide variety of disciplines. The beta distribution is a suitable model for the random behavior of percentages and proportions.

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