Maximum Likelihood Exercise 1

[ToddMorrill]

I think there might be a typo in exercise 1 for the maximum likelihood chapter. If you work out the calculations as it is, you'll get -1/3 for alpha, which results in negative pdf values. If the initial distribution is formulated as alpha * e^(-alpha*x) (aka the exponential distribution), everything works out.

For reference, here's a solution I typed up.

[tuelwer]

I agree! I it should either be \alpha e^{-\alpha x} or \frac{1}{\alpha} e^{-\frac{x}{\alpha}} (see here). It might also be good to mention that the random variable only takes positive values (otherwise the density does not integrate to one which might be confusing for the reader.)