----- Forwarded message from Bruce B. Richards -----
Does any one out there have the t-distribution probability density function. The TI-83 manual has what it uses, however, it contains a symbol which I am unfamiliar with. This symbol is what appears to be an upside down L. Any help or explanation you can provide is (as always) greatly appreciated.
----- End of forwarded message from Bruce B. Richards -----
It's the gamma function and you are not likely to learn much about it in any course that I know of. I think it is most at home as a function of a complex variable. It's just one more of those special transcendental functions, like the Bessel functions, that come up here and there in mathematics. Others have noted the link to the factorial function. If the argument is an integer, you could replace the gamma function with a factorial, though you'd better hope no one asks how to integrate the result!-) I just tell my students that the t-distribution is a normal distribution adjusted for the additional error that results from estimating the population s.d. with the sample s.d. when doing a CI for a mean.
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