numpy.random.RandomState.chisquare

RandomState.chisquare(df, size=None)

Draw samples from a chi-square distribution.

When df independent random variables, each with standard normal distributions (mean 0, variance 1), are squared and summed, the resulting distribution is chi-square (see Notes). This distribution is often used in hypothesis testing.

Parameters:

df : int or array_like of ints

Number of degrees of freedom.

size : int or tuple of ints, optional

Output shape. If the given shape is, e.g., (m, n, k), then m * n * k samples are drawn. If size is None (default), a single value is returned if df is a scalar. Otherwise, np.array(df).size samples are drawn.

Returns:

out : ndarray or scalar

Drawn samples from the parameterized chi-square distribution.

Raises:

ValueError

When df <= 0 or when an inappropriate size (e.g. size=-1) is given.

Notes

The variable obtained by summing the squares of df independent, standard normally distributed random variables:

Q = \sum_{i=0}^{\mathtt{df}} X^2_i

is chi-square distributed, denoted

Q \sim \chi^2_k.

The probability density function of the chi-squared distribution is

p(x) = \frac{(1/2)^{k/2}}{\Gamma(k/2)} x^{k/2 - 1} e^{-x/2},

where \Gamma is the gamma function,

\Gamma(x) = \int_0^{-\infty} t^{x - 1} e^{-t} dt.

References

[R142]

NIST “Engineering Statistics Handbook” http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/eda3666.htm

Examples

>>> np.random.chisquare(2,4)
array([ 1.89920014,  9.00867716,  3.13710533,  5.62318272])