Material Detail

This app provides an introduction to the concept of maximum likelihood estimation by working through the example of the binomial distribution. The first tab shows the probability mass function (pmf) of the binomial distribution. The user specifies the parameters to see various pmfs, and is guided to understand that this function takes the number of successes (x) as input and provides a probability as output.

The pmf is then contrasted with the likelihood function in the second tab. Here the user specifies the fixed "parameters" (x and n) for the likelihood function, and the likelihood curve is graphed. Here the user sees that the input to the function is p rather than x, and the text explains that inputs and parameters have effectively been switched. The user is guided to input various values of x and discover that the likelihood function is always maximized atp=x/n. The third tab displays the likelihood and log likelihood side-by-side so the user understands they achieve the maximum in the same location.

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