The hypergeometric distribution is a probability distribution that defines the probability of having a specified amount of success (k) within a specified number of attempts (n) for a given population of N with K items with the desired feature. So, if we consider a deck of cards, what is the probability of drawing 2 (k) jacks within 10 (n) draws from a deck of 52 (N) cards in which there are 4 (K) jacks? The formula for the hypergeometric distribution formula is as follows:
Those odd-looking things in parenthesis are binomial distributions (combinations).
Not only constrained to gambling, the hypergeometric distribution has a wide range of uses and can be used to determine the statistical significance of specific events (successes). Thus, we can use the hypergeometric distribution to determine under- or over-representation of a...