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Math Forum » Discussions » sci.math.* » sci.stat.math.independent

Topic: log normal?
Replies: 14   Last Post: Jan 1, 2013 6:17 AM

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illywhacker

Posts: 438
Registered: 10/11/06
Re: log normal?
Posted: Dec 29, 2012 1:39 PM
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On Thursday, 27 December 2012 05:00:07 UTC, RichD wrote:
> Ocasionally I come across somethign called log
>
> normal, and I wonder, what is the purpose?
>
> The normal distribution is natural, but the log of that,
>
> seems unnatural, and unintuitive.
>
>
>
> Can anyone elaborate on its use?

An interesting scenario where lognormal variables arise is in escaping over a random potential barrier of some kind. The flux escaping is typically exponentially related to the barrier height or thickness. If the height or thickness of the barrier is Gaussian distributed, then the flux will be lognormal distributed.

illywhacker;

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