>>>>> GILLIBERT, Andre
>>>>> on Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:13:05 +0000 writes:
> On 9/14/21 9:22 AM, Abel AOUN wrote:
>> However I don't get why epsilon is multiplied by 4 instead of
simply using epsilon.
>> Is there someone who can explain this 4 ?
> .Machine$double.eps is the "precision" of floating point
values for values close to 1.0 (between 0.5 and 2.0).
> Using fuzz = .Machine$double.eps would have no effect if nppm is
greater than or equal to 2.
> Using fuzz = 4 * .Machine$double.eps can fix rounding errors for nppm
< 8; for greater nppm, it has no effect.
> Indeed:
> 2 + .Machine$double.eps == 2
> 8+ 4*.Machine$double.eps == 8
> Since nppm is approximatively equal to the quantile multiplied by the
sample size, it can be much greater than 2 or 8.
hmm: not "quantile":
it is approximatively equal to the *'prob'* multiplied by the sample
size
{the quantiles themselves can be on any scale anyway, but they
don't matter yet fortunately in these parts of the calculations}
but you're right in the main point that they are
approx. proportional to n.
> Maybe the rounding errors are only problematic for small nppm; or only
that case is taken in account.
> Moreover, if rounding errors are cumulative, they can be much greater
than the precision of the floating point value. I do not know how this constant
was chosen and what the use-cases were.
I vaguely remember I've been wondering about this also (back at the time).
Experiential wisdom would tell us to take such fuzz values as
*relative* to the magnitude of the values they are added to,
here 'nppm' (which is always >= 0, hence no need for abs(.) as
usually).
So, instead of
j <- floor(nppm + fuzz)
h <- nppm - j
if(any(sml <- abs(h) < fuzz, na.rm = TRUE)) h[sml] <- 0
it would be (something like)
j <- floor(nppm*(1 + fuzz))
h <- nppm - j
if(any(sml <- abs(h) < fuzz*nppm, na.rm = TRUE)) h[sml] <- 0
or rather we would define fuzz as
nppm * (k * .Machine$double.eps)
for a small k.
- - -
OTOH, type=7 is the default, and I guess used in 99.9% of
all uses of quantile, *and* does never use any fuzz ....
Martin
> --
> Sincerely
> Andre GILLIBERT
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