>>>>> "HenrikB" == Henrik Bengtsson <hb at
maths.lth.se>
>>>>> on Wed, 14 Dec 2005 17:05:32 +1100 writes:
HenrikB> Hi,
HenrikB> help on 'mahalanobis' (in the stats package in Rv2.2.0)
now says:
HenrikB> "Description:
HenrikB> Returns the Mahalanobis distance of all rows in 'x' and
the vector
HenrikB> mu='center' with respect to Sigma='cov'. This is
(for vector 'x')
HenrikB> defined as
HenrikB> D^2 = (x - mu)' Sigma^{-1} (x - mu)"
HenrikB> It does return D^2 as written. However, would the
HenrikB> text be more clear if it says "Returns the
HenrikB> _squared_ Mahalanobis distance D^2..." instead? If
HenrikB> so, then text in the example code, e.g. "##- Here,
HenrikB> D^2 = usual Euclidean distances" and the title of
HenrikB> the first plot will also have to be updated.
Indeed, thank you!
Committed {even to R-beta}.
HenrikB> Compare this with what dist() in the same package
HenrikB> returns. When asking for the Equlidean distance
HenrikB> (matrix) between rows in a matrix, we get D not
HenrikB> D^2, e.g. dist(c(1,3)) == 2.