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Chi-Square Distribution

Overview

The chi-square (χ2) distribution is a one-parameter family of curves. The chi-square distribution is commonly used in hypothesis testing, particularly the chi-square test for goodness of fit.

Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox™ offers multiple ways to work with the chi-square distribution.

  • Use distribution-specific functions (chi2cdf, chi2inv, chi2pdf, chi2rnd, chi2stat) with specified distribution parameters. The distribution-specific functions can accept parameters of multiple chi-square distributions.

  • Use generic distribution functions (cdf, icdf, pdf, random) with a specified distribution name ('Chisquare') and parameters.

Parameters

The chi-square distribution uses the following parameter.

ParameterDescriptionSupport
nu (ν)Degrees of freedomν = 1, 2, 3,...

The degrees of freedom parameter is typically an integer, but chi-square functions accept any positive value.

The sum of two chi-square random variables with degrees of freedom ν1 and ν2 is a chi-square random variable with degrees of freedom ν = ν1 + ν2.

Probability Density Function

The probability density function (pdf) of the chi-square distribution is

y=f(x|ν)=x(ν2)/2ex/22ν2Γ(ν/2),

where ν is the degrees of freedom and Γ( · ) is the Gamma function.

For an example, see Compute Chi-Square Distribution pdf.

Cumulative Distribution Function

The cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the chi-square distribution is

p=F(x|ν)=0xt(ν2)/2et/22ν/2Γ(ν/2)dt,

where ν is the degrees of freedom and Γ( · ) is the Gamma function. The result p is the probability that a single observation from the chi-square distribution with ν degrees of freedom falls in the interval [0, x].

For an example, see Compute Chi-Square Distribution cdf.

Inverse Cumulative Distribution Function

The inverse cumulative distribution function (icdf) of the chi-square distribution is

x=F1(p|ν)={x:F(x|ν)=p},

where

p=F(x|ν)=0xt(ν2)/2et/22ν/2Γ(ν/2)dt,

ν is the degrees of freedom, and Γ( · ) is the Gamma function. The result p is the probability that a single observation from the chi-square distribution with ν degrees of freedom falls in the interval [0, x].

Descriptive Statistics

The mean of the chi-square distribution is ν.

The variance of the chi-square distribution is 2ν.

Examples

Compute Chi-Square Distribution pdf

Compute the pdf of a chi-square distribution with 4 degrees of freedom.

x = 0:0.2:15;
y = chi2pdf(x,4);

Plot the pdf.

figure;
plot(x,y)
xlabel('Observation')
ylabel('Probability Density')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel Observation, ylabel Probability Density contains an object of type line.

The chi-square distribution is skewed to the right, especially for few degrees of freedom.

Compute Chi-Square Distribution cdf

Compute the cdf of a chi-square distribution with 4 degrees of freedom.

x = 0:0.2:15;
y = chi2cdf(x,4);

Plot the cdf.

figure;
plot(x,y)
xlabel('Observation')
ylabel('Cumulative Probability')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel Observation, ylabel Cumulative Probability contains an object of type line.

Related Distributions

  • F Distribution — The F distribution is a two-parameter distribution that has parameters ν1 (numerator degrees of freedom) and ν2 (denominator degrees of freedom). The F distribution can be defined as the ratio F=χ12ν1χ22ν2, where χ21 and χ22 are both chi-square distributed with ν1 and ν2 degrees of freedom, respectively.

  • Gamma Distribution — The gamma distribution is a two-parameter continuous distribution that has parameters a (shape) and b (scale). The chi-square distribution is equal to the gamma distribution with 2a = ν and b = 2.

  • Noncentral Chi-Square Distribution — The noncentral chi-square distribution is a two-parameter continuous distribution that has parameters ν (degrees of freedom) and δ (noncentrality). The noncentral chi-square distribution is equal to the chi-square distribution when δ = 0.

  • Normal Distribution — The normal distribution is a two-parameter continuous distribution that has parameters μ (mean) and σ (standard deviation). The standard normal distribution occurs when μ = 0 and σ = 1.

    If Z1, Z2, …, Zn are standard normal random variables, then i=1nZi2 has a chi-square distribution with degrees of freedom ν = n – 1.

    If a set of n observations is normally distributed with variance σ2 and sample variance s2, then (n1)s2σ2 has a chi-square distribution with degrees of freedom ν = n – 1. This relationship is used to calculate confidence intervals for the estimate of the normal parameter σ2 in the function normfit.

  • Student's t Distribution — The Student's t distribution is a one-parameter continuous distribution that has parameter ν (degrees of freedom). If Z has a standard normal distribution and χ2 has a chi-square distribution with degrees of freedom ν, then t = Zχ2/ν has a Student's t distribution with degrees of freedom ν.

  • Wishart Distribution — The Wishart distribution is a higher dimensional analog of the chi-square distribution.

References

[1] Abramowitz, Milton, and Irene A. Stegun, eds. Handbook of Mathematical Functions: With Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables. 9. Dover print.; [Nachdr. der Ausg. von 1972]. Dover Books on Mathematics. New York, NY: Dover Publ, 2013.

[2] Devroye, Luc. Non-Uniform Random Variate Generation. New York, NY: Springer New York, 1986. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8643-8

[3] Evans, M., N. Hastings, and B. Peacock. Statistical Distributions. 2nd ed., Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993.

[4] Kreyszig, Erwin. Introductory Mathematical Statistics: Principles and Methods. New York: Wiley, 1970.

See Also

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