The likelihood function is not a probability distribution because its integral over the parameter space does not equal 1. It measures how well each parameter value explains the fixed data, rather than assigning probabilities to the parameter values themselves.
Conditions: The data are fixed.; The parameter is varied over its space .
The likelihood function is not a probability distribution because its integral over the parameter space does not equal 1. It measures how well each parameter value explains the fixed data, rather than assigning probabilities to the parameter values themselves.
Conditions: The data are fixed.; The parameter is varied over its space .