FindFit and NormFunction
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg64151] FindFit and NormFunction
- From: Paul Abbott <paul at physics.uwa.edu.au>
- Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 19:09:04 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I am having difficulty using the NormFunction option to FindFit. Let me
give a concrete example. Abramowitz and Stegun Section 17.3.35 gives a
nonlinear approximant to the complete elliptic integral. See
www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertIt/Reference/AMS55.ASP?Res=150&Page=592
This approximant to EllipticE[1-m] can be implemented as
f[a_, b_, c_, d_][m_] = a m + b m^2 - (c m + d m^2) Log[m] + 1;
After sampling EllipticE[1-m],
data = N[Table[{m, EllipticE[1-m]}, {m, 10^-8, 1 - 10^-8, 10^-3}]];
using FindFit gives quite a decent approximant:
FindFit[data, f[a, b, c, d][m], {a,b,c,d}, m]
best[m_] =f[a, b, c, d][m] /. %
The maximal absolute fractional error is ~6 x 10^-5 as seen from
Plot[10^5 (1 - best[m]/EllipticE[1 - m]), {m, 0, 1}, PlotRange -> All]
However, the Abramowitz and Stegun approximant has error ~4 x 10^-5.
AS[m_] =f[0.4630151, 0.1077812, 0.2452727, 0.0412496][m];
Plot[10^5 (1 - AS[m]/EllipticE[1 - m]), {m, 0, 1}, PlotRange -> All]
Essentially, one needs to fit with respect to the L-Infinity-Norm, see
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/L-Infinity-Norm.html
as the NormFunction in FindFit. However, when I try
FindFit[data, f[a, b, c, d][m], {a,b,c,d}, m,
NormFunction :> (Norm[#, Infinity]&)]
I get a FindFit::"lmnl" message (which is reasonable and informative)
and also a FindFit::"lstol" message:
"The line search decreased the step size to within tolerance specified
by AccuracyGoal and PrecisionGoal but was unable to find a sufficient
decrease in the norm of the residual. You may need more than
MachinePrecision digits of working precision to meet these tolerances."
I can see (by monitoring the Norm of the residual) that the algorithm
gets trapped a long way from the minimum -- but I don't see why more
digits of working precision are required.
As an aside, is there an easy way (a handle?) to monitor the norm of the
residuals at each step? One way is to write a function to compute the
residuals,
r[a_, b_, c_, d_] =
Norm[(f[a, b, c, d] /@ data[[All,1]]) - data[[All,2]], Infinity];
and then track them using StepMonitor or EvaluationMonitor
Reap[FindFit[data, f[a, b, c, d][m], {a,b,c,d}, m,
NormFunction :> (Norm[#,Infinity]&),
EvaluationMonitor :> Sow[r[a,b,c,d]]]]
but is there a _direct_ way of accessing the residuals which are
computed by FindFit anyway?
Cheers,
Paul
_______________________________________________________________________
Paul Abbott Phone: 61 8 6488 2734
School of Physics, M013 Fax: +61 8 6488 1014
The University of Western Australia (CRICOS Provider No 00126G)
AUSTRALIA http://physics.uwa.edu.au/~paul
_______________________________________________________________________
Paul Abbott Phone: 61 8 6488 2734
School of Physics, M013 Fax: +61 8 6488 1014
The University of Western Australia (CRICOS Provider No 00126G)
AUSTRALIA http://physics.uwa.edu.au/~paul