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Assuming the number of arrivals per time period is Poisson distributed with a mean arrival rate of 6 customers per hour, determine the mean interarrival time?

1) 10 minutes
2) 6 minutes
3) 60 minutes
4) 14 minutes

User Volhv
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

The mean interarrival time, in this case, is 10 minutes, calculated by dividing the total time in an hour by the average number of customers arriving within that hour (60 minutes ÷ 6 customers).

Step-by-step explanation:

The question you've asked pertains to understanding the Poisson distribution and exponential distribution, which are used in probability theory and statistics to model the number of events in a fixed interval of time and the time between events, respectively. Given a mean arrival rate of 6 customers per hour, we can find the mean interarrival time by dividing the total time in the period by the mean arrival rate. So, 60 minutes divided by 6 customers gives us a mean interarrival time:

60 minutes ÷ 6 customers = 10 minutes

Conclusion

Therefore, the mean interarrival time is 10 minutes, which indicates that on average, you can expect a customer to arrive every 10 minutes. This is a typical application of the exponential distribution in a real-world scenario.

User Herr Grumps
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