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Re: Confused about precision vs accuracy

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg90398] Re: [mg90359] Confused about precision vs accuracy
  • From: DrMajorBob <drmajorbob at att.net>
  • Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 02:27:22 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <20643916.1215488336956.JavaMail.root@m08>
  • Reply-to: drmajorbob at longhorns.com

(A) In science and engineering, "precision" describes a thermometer's  
ability to get the same answer to several digits in many trials under the  
same conditions -- even if that answer is wrong. "Accuracy" describes the  
thermometer's ability to get (approximately) the RIGHT answer, even if the  
error variance is fairly large. If you know a device is PRECISE, it can be  
calibrated to determine its bias; subtract that bias, and you have a  
measurement that is also ACCURATE.

A device whose measurement is unbiased but highly variable could be called  
accurate, but not precise. The cure for this can be to average many  
independent measurements.

In Mathematica, Accuracy[x] is the "effective number of digits to the  
right of the decimal point in the number x". As Help will tell you,

"With uncertainty dx, Accuracy[x] is -Log[10,dx]."

For Precision, Help tells us

"With absolute uncertainty dx, Precision[x] is -Log[10,dx/x]."

So Accuracy is the number of FRACTIONAL digits we can trust, while  
Preecision is the TOTAL number of digits we can trust. (In a sense. Your  
simple summation of it in part A was pretty much correct.)

We're also told that

"For any approximate number x, Precision[x] is equal to  
RealExponent[x]+Accuracy[x]."

and that Accuracy[x]==Precision[x]==Infinity when x is an exact number.  
For instance,

Accuracy@Pi

\[Infinity]

(B) The different results with Tanh make no sense, and anybody who says  
otherwise is full of it. Fortunately, it makes no earthly difference. Look  
at the following, for instance:

N[Tanh[100000] - 1]
% // Precision
%% // Accuracy
%%% // RealDigits

0.
MachinePrecision
307.653
{{0}, -307}

N[Tanh[100000``1] - 1]
% // Precision
%% // Accuracy
%%% // RealDigits

-3.*10^-86859
0.69897
86859.3
{{3}, -86858}

The second result has less than ONE digit of precision, yet it has 86859  
digits of accuracy! What does that mean???

Well, let's check the equation mentioned earlier:
x = N[Tanh[100000``1] - 1];
Precision[x]
RealExponent[x] + Accuracy[x]
% == %%

0.69897
0.69897
False

The apparently equal answers are NOT equal to machine precision, so the  
boolean result was False.

Precision[x] // RealDigits
RealExponent[x] + Accuracy[x] // RealDigits

{{6, 9, 8, 9, 7, 0, 0, 0, 4, 3, 3, 9, 1, 8, 6, 5}, 0}
{{6, 9, 8, 9, 7, 0, 0, 0, 4, 3, 4, 8, 6, 6, 6, 4}, 0}

Trying the same thing for the first Tanh result:

x = N[Tanh[100000] - 1];
Precision[x]

MachinePrecision

$MachinePrecision
% // RealDigits

15.9546

{{1, 5, 9, 5, 4, 5, 8, 9, 7, 7, 0, 1, 9, 1, 0, 0}, 2}

As you can see, the equation from Help fails miserably in this case.

So... what can I say? IMHO, Precision and Accuracy are virtually  
undocumented. If you're careful what you do with them, they can solve very  
difficult problems for you. If you're NOT extremely careful, they'll give  
you nonsense.

(C) This one is easy.

N[Pi, 100]

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781\
6406286208998628034825342117068

(D) No, 10-ish makes far more sense.

Accuracy[1`10 + 1`100]

10.

Precision[1`10 + 1`100]

10.301

1`10 + 1`100 // RealDigits

{{2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}, 1}

x = 1`10 + 1`100;
Precision@x
RealExponent[x] + Accuracy[x]

10.301

10.301

RealExponent[x]

0.30103

You're adding a number for whom you trust only 10 digits to another number  
for which you trust 100 digits. Clearly, the sum has 10 (or less)  
trustworthy digits. The large (11th digit) uncertainty overwhelms the  
small (101st digit) uncertainty.

Bobby

On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:06:51 -0500, Aaron Fude <aaronfude at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I can't figure out how the precision and accuracy concepts work in
> Mathematica.
>
> A. First of all, what's the difference? (Is it only total number of
> digits vs digits after decimal?)
>
> B. Secondly, could someone talk through the logic of why.
>
> N[Tanh[100000] - 1]
>
> equals 0, while
>
> N[Tanh[100000``1] - 1]
>
> equals -3.*10^-86859;
>
> C. On a related issue, how do I see Pi to a certain number of digits.
> I figured out this hack:
>
> 1``100 Pi
>
> D. And finally (for now) where can I read up on rules for "precision
> arithmetic". For example, my guess that
>
> Precision[1`10 + 1`100]
>
> ought to be 100-ish rather than 10-ish.
>
> Many thanks in advnce!
>
> Aaron
>
>



-- 
DrMajorBob at longhorns.com


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