Ein BASIC‐Programm zur statistischen Auswertung von mikroskopischen Partikelzählungen

Abstract

I n many biological counting problems i t is known that under ideal conditions repeated counts follow a Poisson distribution. This is true, for example, for counts of bacteria in a number of equal volumes from a well-mixed suspension. I n order to indicate whether counts show more veriability than can usually be expected from a Poisson distribution it is customary t o use the index of dispersion. A BASIC-program written for personal computers is given which allows a rapid statistical evaluation of count data by means of the dispersion index. The program can be used, moreover, for some other tasks, too, such as the computation of confidence bounds, the testing of hypotheses and the planning of counting processes.