Poisson Distribution

Hi everyone,

Is it possible to generate non-integer Poisson random numbers? The poissrnd function appears to generate integer random numbers only ...

Thank you!!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

What would a non-integral number of observations even mean for a Poisson process? Poisson processes inherently deal with discrete number of occurrences.

[deep]

Thanks for you answer Walter ... Given that, does it make any sense for lambda to be non-integer ?

[Walter Roberson]

Yes, certainly. For example if I expect one event every two intervals, then lambda would be 1/2. But still for any one discrete interval, the number of events that occurred in that interval is going to be an integer.