--- title: "Off the Number Line: Poisson Ivy" description: "This \"poisson\" ivy grows in an interesting distribution." image: https://2024.mindresearch.org/hubfs/Education/Archive/Off_the_Number_Line.jpg --- [![](https://2024.mindresearch.org/hs-fs/hubfs/MIND-logo-2018.jpg?width=1701&height=623&name=MIND-logo-2018.jpg)](http://www.mindresearch.org/) [![mind logo](https://2024.mindresearch.org/hubfs/graphics/logos/MIND-logos-color2.svg)](https://www.mindeducation.org/) [![mind white logo](https://2024.mindresearch.org/hubfs/graphics/logos/MIND-logos-white2.svg)](https://www.mindeducation.org/) - [Our Approach](https://2024.mindresearch.org/our-approach) - [Why MIND?](https://2024.mindresearch.org/why-math-education) - [Our Research](https://2024.mindresearch.org/our-research) - [Our Patents](https://2024.mindresearch.org/patents) - [Our Impact](https://2024.mindresearch.org/impact) - [Our Partners](https://2024.mindresearch.org/partners) - [Partner Stories](https://2024.mindresearch.org/partner-stories) - Our Programs - [ST Math](http://www.stmath.com/) - [InsightMath](http://www.insightmath.com/) - [MathMINDs](https://www.mindresearch.org/mathminds) - [Life at MIND](https://2024.mindresearch.org/careers) - Resources - [Blog](https://2024.mindresearch.org/blog) - [Math Discourse](https://2024.mindresearch.org/puzzletalks) - [Podcast](https://2024.mindresearch.org/edtech-podcast) - [News](https://2024.mindresearch.org/news) - [Activities](https://2024.mindresearch.org/stem-resources) - [Donate](https://store.mindresearch.org/pages/donate) **Student privacy****:** learn more about our commitment to keeping students safe [Read More](https://www.mindresearch.org/privacy-policy) ![MIND-on-Math_Blog-Header-5](https://2024.mindresearch.org/hs-fs/hubfs/graphics/headers/_blog-headers/MIND-on-Math_Blog-Header-5.png?width=2000&height=667&name=MIND-on-Math_Blog-Header-5.png "MIND-on-Math_Blog-Header-5") Category Community Teaching & Learning Technology & Games Research & Outcomes Neuroscience Celebrations & Successes [![Subscribe](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/237516/a35fb57d-2960-4554-a0f3-e7bb5946fc70.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/237516/a35fb57d-2960-4554-a0f3-e7bb5946fc70) [Mathematics](https://2024.mindresearch.org/blog/topic/mathematics) # Off the Number Line: Poisson Ivy By [Matthew Peterson and James Huang](https://2024.mindresearch.org/blog/author/matthew-peterson-and-james-huang) - - - - - [mailto:?subject=Off%20the%20Number%20Line:%20Poisson%20Ivy&body=Off%20the%20Number%20Line:%20Poisson%20Ivy%20https://2024.mindresearch.org/blog/poisson-ivy-funny-math-cartoon](mailto:?subject=Off%20the%20Number%20Line:%20Poisson%20Ivy&body=Off%20the%20Number%20Line:%20Poisson%20Ivy%20https://2024.mindresearch.org/blog/poisson-ivy-funny-math-cartoon) - ![poisson ivy math cartoon](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d6/97/ac/d697acea22eb58ddc2c7b13f7abe65cd.jpg "poisson ivy math cartoon") **Interviewer:** Looks like you have a misspelling. Shouldn’t it be poison ivy? **Cartoonist:** That’s Poisson with English pronunciation pwass-ahn, as in “Poisson distribution”. **Interviewer:** What’s a Poisson distribution? **Cartoonist:** It’s an asymmetric bell-like curve used to model how many times one should expect an event to occur in a fixed time period assuming that the occurrences of these events are infrequent and independent from one another. The shape of the ivy on that wall is the shape of a Poisson distribution curve. **Interviewer:** Ah, now the cartoon makes sense. Can you give an example of when you would use a Poisson distribution? **Cartoonist:** Sure. I walk my son to school each morning and we occasionally see hummingbirds. We don’t see them every day, but on average, we see about 4 hummingbirds a week. Seeing a humming bird is an “event.” Since humming birds don’t fly in flocks, each sighting can be treated as an independent event. If you wanted to know the probability of seeing a given number of humming birds in a week, say 3 or 5, you can use a Poisson distribution with a mean of 4 to model that. **Interviewer:** Perfect. I get it now. So to connect this to the cartoon, you could also model the number of visitors to a park who contract a poison ivy rash each month. **Cartoonist:** Yes! That would be a good use case! **Interviewer:** I really do learn a lot from these [Off the Number Line cartoons](http://blog.mindresearch.org/blog/topic/off-the-number-line). Looking forward to what you have in store for next week!   Interested in challenging your math and problem-solving skills? [![Download Free Challenge Games for iPad](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/237516/8b5c6e61-0d03-4e7b-8cb9-10271e4fd796.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/237516/8b5c6e61-0d03-4e7b-8cb9-10271e4fd796) ![Matthew Peterson and James Huang](https://2024.mindresearch.org/hubfs/Blog/Authors/MIND-profile-600x600.png) ### About the Author Matthew Peterson, Ph.D., is Co-founder and Chief Research & Development Officer at the MIND Research Institute. 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