title: Exploring a mixture of distributions using Minitab.
abstract: A set of macros has been developed to help the user explore the characteristics of the two-component mixture of distributions. Five distributions are included: normal; exponential; Weibull; lognormal; and uniform. Using the powerful abilities of Minitab (version 9) the user can produce graphs for the conditional and unconditional density, cumulative density, survival and hazard functions. The mean of the unconditional distribution is calculated as the weighted average of the conditional means. A technique is programmed for calculating the unconditional median which cannot be derived mathematically. A What..if..? approach can be helpful in clarifying concepts such as sufficient conditions for unimodality, identifiability of mixtures, and hazard function of mixture of distributions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Cairo University, Egypt.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Osman
mesh_terms: D003196:Computer Graphics; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003479:Curriculum; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012984:Software; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000193:education*