Final answer:
A hit traditionally refers to each file request to a server, but it is not a good measure of user engagement. More relevant metrics include page views and unique visitors. Probability questions can be answered using the exponential and Poisson distributions.
Step-by-step explanation:
With respect to website traffic monitoring, a hit is often misunderstood as a metric. Traditionally, a hit represents each request made to the server for each file, which could include the HTML file, images, and any other associated files required to load a web page. However, this term is less relevant now because it does not accurately reflect genuine user engagement or website traffic, as one page view could generate many hits. Instead, metrics such as page views or unique visitors are more insightful for gauging website traffic.
For the probability questions regarding website visitors:
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- The probability that the duration between successive visits is more than 10 minutes can be calculated using the exponential distribution formula with a rate of 12 visits per hour.
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- To identify the duration that the top 25% of visits exceed, you would again use the exponential distribution's percentiles.
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- The probability of the next visit occurring within the next five minutes, given that 20 minutes have passed, would incorporate the memoryless property of the exponential distribution.
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- Calculating the probability of fewer than seven visits in an hour would require the Poisson distribution with the given rate.