On a geometrical derivation of the upper tail of the null distribution of w-exponential

Shapiro and Wilk (1972) proposed a goodness of fit test for the exponential distribution. Carrie (1980) obtained an explicit expression of the null distribution of their test statistic W (n) E in a neighbourhood of its upper tail. His derivation uses a certain transformation involving the order statistics from the standard exponential distribution. In this paper we present an alternative derivation of this distribution using an elementary geometrical argument.