Producing random numbers with a Poisson distribution: randpoisson

### 8.3.5 Producing random numbers with a Poisson distribution: randpoisson

Recall that given a number λ>0, the corresponding Poisson distribution P(λ) satisfies

Prob(X ≤ k) = exp(−λ)λk/k!

It will have mean λ and standard deviation √λ. (See also Section 8.4.6.)

The randpoisson command finds a random integer according to a Poisson distribution.

- randpoisson takes one argument:
  λ, a positive number.
- randpoisson(λ) returns an integer chosen randomly according to the Poisson distribution with paramter λ.

#### Example.

Input:

randpoisson(10.6)

Output (for example):

16