![](https://d3ilqtpdwi981i.cloudfront.net/GhEJHS5nSWZRm91WXOaYVE1dIWU=/425x550/smart/https://bepress-attached-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/f9/1d/e0/f91de0eb-7cc7-4b0f-9726-89095f7520e4/thumbnail_BPFile%20object.jpg)
We discuss some properties of the point spread distribution, defined as the distribution of the difference of two independent binomial random variables with the same parameter n in- cluding exact and approximate probabilities and related optimization issues. We use various approximation techniques for different distributions, special functions, and analytic, combi- natorial and symbolic methods, such as multi-summation techniques. We prove that in case of unequal success rates, if these rates change with their difference kept fix and small, and n is appropriately bounded, then the point spread distribution only slightly changes for small point differences. We also prove that for equal success rates p, the probability of a tie is min- imized if p = 1/2. Numerical examples are included for the case with n = 12.
- Skellam distribution,
- approximating distributions,
- asymptotic enumeration,
- special functions,
- multi-summation
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tamas_lengyel/10/