Maximum likelihood for a Poisson distribution.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation is Probably for the Best (Fit).

Imagine we observe a hundred coin flips, and we get heads twenty times and tails eighty times. If the coin is not altered in some way then an assumption might be that the probability of getting heads is still 0.5.

This may not be wise, because if that was the case we should have observed heads fifty times and tails fifty times. That did not happen. Perhaps a…