Talk:Rayleigh distribution

This is also a geometry-based distribution in mathematical probabilities. I was disappointed to come here looking for more information on this distribution and significant theorems, only to get redirected to some stuff about radio broadcasting.

Perhaps this could be turned into a disambiguation page? Although I don't know enough about the Rayleigh probability distribution to write a decent article on it myself.

For this distribution and every other probability distribution on Wiki, please include the valid ranges of x. Like for gaussian, x goes from negative infinity to infinity... etc.

5/6/09 - The Rayleigh distribtion is a special case of Weibull, where m (the shape factor) = 2. The Weibull equation is:

$f(t)={\frac {m}{t}}\left({\frac {t}{c}}\right)^{m}\exp -\left({\frac {t}{c}}\right)^{m}$

Setting m = 2 gives:

$f(t)={\frac {2}{t}}\left({\frac {t}{c}}\right)^{2}\exp -\left({\frac {t}{c}}\right)^{2}={\frac {2t}{c^{2}}}\exp \left({\frac {-t^{2}}{c^{2}}}\right)$

Now, let x = 2t (and t = x/2) to get the form on the article page:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "http://localhost:6011/en.wikipedia.org/v1/":): {\displaystyle f(x) = \frac{x}{c^2} \exp\left(\frac{-\left(\frac{x}{2}\right)^2}{c^2}\right) Hi Chris: The Matlab documentation has a 2 in the denominator of the exponential - Patrick Tibbits = \frac{x}{c^2} \exp\left(\frac{-\left(\frac{x^2}{2^2}\right)}{c^2}\right) = \frac{x}{c^2} \exp\left(\frac{-\left(\frac{x^2}{4}\right)}{c^2}\right)}

$={\frac {x}{c^{2}}}\exp \left({\frac {-x^{2}}{4c^{2}}}\right)$

This is different than the equation on the article page that has a 2 instead of the 4. So my question is, which is correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ChrisHoll (talk • contribs) 05:49, 7 May 2009 (UTC)