Cumulative density function
Appearance
An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether or not to retain it. |
Cumulative density function is a self-contradictory phrase resulting from confusion between:
The two words cumulative and density contradict each other. Given a graph of the probability density function
is the probability of finding just the particular value of the variable corresponding to on the -axis. It knows nothing about the probabilities to be found at other values of , and therefore cannot be cumulative. The cumulative density function, by contrast is an accumulation of the probabilities of finding every value of up to and including the current value indicated on the -axis.