< Does anyone know why they're called random deviates, as opposed to
random
numbers?>
Others will probably give you some technical reason about random numbers can
be considered as random deviates from a mean (I think at least the 1875
Galton paper at http://www.mugu.com/galton/ uses similar terminology (I'm
not claiming this is the earliest use - just the easiest to access at the
moment)).
But everyone knows the real reason for the term is to create the oxymoron
'normal deviates' - it's a great name for a softball team of
statisticians
:)
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Robinson [mailto:andrewr at uidaho.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 12:13 AM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] Curious about nomenclature: random deviates
Hi all,
a student of mine recently stumbled whilst reading the R help files for the
statistical distributions. She was confused by their assertion that, for
example, 'rnorm' generates random deviates. I have seen this label used
elsewhere, although it does not seem universal - for example, Ripley (1987)
doesn't have it in the index. Does anyone know why they're called random
deviates, as opposed to random numbers?
Andrew
--
Andrew Robinson Ph: 208 885 7115
Department of Forest Resources Fa: 208 885 6226
University of Idaho E : andrewr at uidaho.edu
PO Box 441133 W : http://www.uidaho.edu/~andrewr
Moscow ID 83843 Or: http://www.biometrics.uidaho.edu
No statement above necessarily represents my employer's opinion.
Cited:
Ripley, B.D. 1987. Stochastic Simulation. Wiley-Interscience;
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