Talk:Bean machine

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A picture of a bean machine would make this article much clearer. Michael Hardy 02:10, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] But how does it work?

Can anyone explain why it aproximates a bell curve or normal distribution? The article doesnt define why it just isnt random. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 159.153.156.60 (talk) 10:30, 3 May 2007 (UTC).

Give Binomial distribution a read and see if it answers your question. Essentally, each peg in the bean machine/Galton board presents a left/right binary decision and the resulting bin that the the beans/balls eventually fall into is a result of a series of these left/right binary decisions.

Atlant 12:07, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The statement

"According to the central limit theorem the binomial distribution approximates normal distribution provided that n, the number of rows of pins in the machine, is large."

is incorrect. The central limit theorem is freqently misapplied in this fashion. It has to do with the distribution of the SUM of the random variables. This does not mean that if you "sum" enough graphs of the binomial distribution that it will bcome a normal distribution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.25.240.225 (talk) 15:13, 31 March 2008 (UTC)