This is my undergraduate capstone on the skew-normal approximation of the binomial distribution. The paper I am explicating is "A Note on Improved Approximation of the Binomial Distribution by the Skew-Normal Distribution," by Chiang, et al.
The normal distribution is a good approximation of the binomial when either n is very large or p is close to 0.5. However, when neither of those conditions are met, the binomial is skewed. The skew-normal distribution introduces a third parameter, lambda, that attempts to capture this asymmetry.
For more juicy details, read the paper or presentation ...
All paths are relative to the repository.
Chances are, you're looking for my paper, presentation, or stats library. I've symlinked these into the quick-links folder:
- A pdf of my paper:
quick-links/paper.pdf - A pdf of my presentation:
quick-links/presentation.pdf - Stats library:
quick-links/stats.py(requires python and rpy)
If you're interested in looking at the tex source code for either my paper or presentation, here's where you can find them:
- The tex file for my paper:
project/paper/paper.tex - The tex file for my presentation:
project/paper/presentation.tex
Now for a more in-deph look. Here are the top-level directories and an explanation of their contents.
The home of my project.
bibliography.bib: The BibTeX file shared between my paper and presentation.calc/: Everything calculation related. My stats library,stats.py, contains many useful functions for deriving a skew-normal approximation.flyer/: The materials for my flyer, which I put together using Inkscape.images/: Figures and graphs.paper/: The pieces of my paper. I keep each section of my paper in its own tex file; these are stitched together last minute using bash and run through the latex compiler.pre-talk/: An introductory talk to my capstone that I put together ages ago for my capstone seminar class.presentation/: The pieces of my presentation. As with my paper, I keep each section in its own tex file and concatenate them just before compilation.proposal.pdf: My capstone proposal.support/: The supporting R packages and TeX style files for my project.
My collection of academic papers relating to the skew-normal. (Not all of them are used in my capstone.)
Symlinks to the resources I imagine people will be most interested in.
All of my original work is licensed under the MIT license.