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omom

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life expectancy (survivorship) math

I need an function for crude life expectancy (that is a life expectancy based solely on genetics, no environmental considerations)

I would expect a curve of this equation to look like a gauss/normal distrubution weighted to the right of the median. Kinda like this:

|
|                            *
|                        *         *
|                     *              *
|                  *                   *
|               *                        *
|          *                               *
|       *                                    *
| *                                            *
___________________________________________


A logarithmic normal distribution is close, but it looks like a guass/normal distrubution weighted to the right of the median.

|
|            *
|        *        *
|      *             *
|     *                 *
|    *                      *
|   *                          *
|  *                              *
| *                                    *
___________________________________________

x is age (in years)
y is # of lifeforms


---------------------------------
maybe this

x   = age interval (often implicitly an interval)  -this can be a month, year
Nx = survivors beginning at age interval x
lx   = proportion of orgs surviving to start of x
dx  = organisms dying between x and x+1

Derive subsequent columns from the data of x and Nx
dx = Nx+1 - Nx
lx = Nx / No

ex = the sum of all Lx from age x to the last age / N of age x

Lx = (Nx + Nx+1) / 2



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macgre
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What you ask for is non-trivial but I suggest working in reverse.  First decide what sort of curve you want then work your varibales from that.  Skewed curve probabilites can be calculated using Binomial Distrubutions, but when the population is large enough (as in your case) then normalized approximations can be used.

Try this link for more info:
http://online.moraine.cc.il.us/Summer/2002/MTH139-303/lesson17.htm

Hope it helps.
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GnarOlak

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omom

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I think the gumbel distribution is what i'm looking for