I have written an algorithm that calculates the number of zero-crossings within a signal. By this, I mean the number of times a value changes from + to - and vice-versa.
The algorithm is explained like this:
If there are the following elements:
v1 = {90, -4, -3, 1, 3}
Then you multiply the value by the value next to it. (i * i+1)
Then taking the sign value sign(val) determine if this is positive or negative. Example:
e1 = {90 * -4} = -360 -> sigum(e1) = -1
e2 = {-4 * -3} = 12 -> signum(e2) = 1
e3 = {-3 * 1} = -3 -> signum(e3) = -1
e4 = {1 * 3} = 3 -> signum(e4) = 1
Therefore the total number of values changed from negative to positive is = 2 ..
Now I want to put this forumular, algorithm into an equation so that I can present it.
I have asked a simular question, but got really confused so went away and thought about it and came up with (what I think the equation should look like).. It's probably wrong, well, laughably wrong. But here it is:
Now the logic behind it:
I pass in a V (val)
I get the absolute value of the summation of the signum from calculating (Vi * Vi+1) .. The signum(Vi * Vi+1) should produce -1, 1, ..., values
If and only if the value is -1 (Because I'm only interested in the number of times zero is crossed, therefore, the zero values.
Does this look correct, if not, can anyone suggest improvements?
Thank you :)!
EDIT:
Is this correct now?
You are doing the right thing here but your equation is wrong simply because you only want to count the sign of the product of adjacent elements when it is negative. Dont sum the sign of products since positive sign products should be neglected. For this reason, an explicit mathematical formula is tricky as positive products between adjacent elements should be ignored. What you want is a function that takes 2 arguments and evaluates to 1 when their product is negative and zero when non-negative
f(x,y) = 1 if xy < 0
= 0 otherwise
then your number of crossing points is simply given by
sum(f(v1[i],v1[i+1])) for i = 0 to i = n-1
where n is the length of your vector/array v1 (using C style array access notation based on zero indexing). You also have to consider edge conditions such as 4 consecutive points {-1,0,0,1} - do you want to consider this as simply one zero crossing or 2??? Only you can answer this based on the specifics of your problem, but whatever your answer adjust your algorithm accordingly.
Related
So I just started to learn Java, but my prof. just gave us this wild formula which we have to translate into code. I can't figure it out how to make this possible, can someone help me ?
σ means Standard deviation
µ means average
x means The Array x
N means N variables
]
The Σ upper-case Sigma character simply means the sum of.
So, for every data value, subtract the mean (average, in layman's terms) and square the result. Add all of those values together, divide it by the number of data values minus one, then take the square root of that.
Psuedo-code for that would be something like below. First, a function for calculating mean:
def calcMean(collection):
# Initialise for working out mean (sum / count).
sum = 0, count = 0
# Add every item to the sum and keep count.
for item in collection:
sum = sum + item
count = count + 1
# Avoid dive by zero, you choose what to do.
if count == 0:
handle empty collection somehow
# Return the mean.
return sum / count
Then using that to calculate the standard deviation:
def calcStdDev(collection):
# Get mean of the collection, initialise accumulator and count.
mean = calcMean(collection)
accum = 0, count = 0
for item in collection:
# Accumulate each '(item-mean) squared' value.
diff = item - mean
accum = accum + diff * diff
# Avoid dive by zero, you choose what to do.
if count < 2:
handle too-small collection somehow
# Divide and square root for result.
return sqrt(sum / (count - 1))
Now your job is to turn that pseudo-code into Java, something that should be a bit easier than turning the formula into Java.
Say I am tossing a fair coin where 'tails' is assigned the value x = -1/2 and 'heads' is assigned x = 1/2.
I do this N times and I want to obtain the sum. This is what I have tried:
p = 0.5
N = 1e4
X(N,p)=(rand(N).<p)
I know this is incomplete but when I check (rand(N).<p) I see an array consisting of true, false. I interpret this as 'Tails' or 'Heads'. However, I don't know how to assign the values 1/2 and -1/2 to each of these elements in order for me to find the sum. If I simply use sum((rand(N).<p)) I do get an integer value, but I don't think this is the right way to do it because I haven't specified the values 1/2 and -1/2 anywhere.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
As indicated by the comments already, you want to do
sum(rand([-0.5, 0.5], N))
where N must be an integer (you wrote N=1e4, therefore typeof(N) == Float64 and rand won't work).
The documentation of rand (obtained by ?rand) describes what rand(S, N) does:
Pick a random element or array of random elements from the set of
values specified by S
Here, S can be an optional indexable collection, an array of values in your case (or a type like Int). So, above S = [-0.5, 0.5] and rand draws N random elements from this collection, which we can afterwards sum up.
Assigning specific values to a boolean array
Since this is the title of your question, and the answer above doesn't actually address this, let me comment on this as well.
You could do sum((rand(N).<p)-0.5), i.e. you shift all the ones to 0.5 and all the zeros to -0.5 to get the wanted result. Note that this is a general strategy: Let's say you want true to be a and false to be b, where a and b are numbers. You achieve this by (rand(N).<p)*(a-b) + b.
However, beyond being more "complicated", sum((rand(N).<p)-0.5) will allocate temporary arrays, first one of booleans, then one of numbers, the latter of which will eventually go into sum. Because of these unnecessary allocations this approach will be slower than the solution above.
So in my text book there is this example of a recursive function using f#
let rec gcd = function
| (0,n) -> n
| (m,n) -> gcd(n % m,m);;
with this function my text book gives the example by executing:
gcd(36,116);;
and since the m = 36 and not 0 then it ofcourse goes for the second clause like this:
gcd(116 % 36,36)
gcd(8,36)
gcd(36 % 8,8)
gcd(4,8)
gcd(8 % 4,4)
gcd(0,4)
and now hits the first clause stating this entire thing is = 4.
What i don't get is this (%)percentage sign/operator or whatever it is called in this connection. for an instance i don't get how
116 % 36 = 8
I have turned this so many times in my head now and I can't figure how this can turn into 8?
I know this is probably a silly question for those of you who knows this but I would very much appreciate your help the same.
% is a questionable version of modulo, which is the remainder of an integer division.
In the positive, you can think of % as the remainder of the division. See for example Wikipedia on Euclidean Divison. Consider 9 % 4: 4 fits into 9 twice. But two times four is only eight. Thus, there is a remainder of one.
If there are negative operands, % effectively ignores the signs to calculate the remainder and then uses the sign of the dividend as the sign of the result. This corresponds to the remainder of an integer division that rounds to zero, i.e. -2 / 3 = 0.
This is a mathematically unusual definition of division and remainder that has some bad properties. Normally, when calculating modulo n, adding or subtracting n on the input has no effect. Not so for this operator: 2 % 3 is not equal to (2 - 3) % 3.
I usually have the following defined to get useful remainders when there are negative operands:
/// Euclidean remainder, the proper modulo operation
let inline (%!) a b = (a % b + b) % b
So far, this operator was valid for all cases I have encountered where a modulo was needed, while the raw % repeatedly wasn't. For example:
When filling rows and columns from a single index, you could calculate rowNumber = index / nCols and colNumber = index % nCols. But if index and colNumber can be negative, this mapping becomes invalid, while Euclidean division and remainder remain valid.
If you want to normalize an angle to (0, 2pi), angle %! (2. * System.Math.PI) does the job, while the "normal" % might give you a headache.
Because
116 / 36 = 3
116 - (3*36) = 8
Basically, the % operator, known as the modulo operator will divide a number by other and give the rest if it can't divide any longer. Usually, the first time you would use it to understand it would be if you want to see if a number is even or odd by doing something like this in f#
let firstUsageModulo = 55 %2 =0 // false because leaves 1 not 0
When it leaves 8 the first time means that it divided you 116 with 36 and the closest integer was 8 to give.
Just to help you in future with similar problems: in IDEs such as Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio, if you hover the mouse cursor over an operator such as % you should get a tooltip, thus:
Module operator tool tip
Even if you don't understand the tool tip directly, it'll give you something to google.
I lack the math skills to make this function.
basically, i want to return 2 random prime numbers that when multiplied, yield a number of bits X given as argument.
for example:
if I say my X is 3 then a possible solution would be:
p = 2 and q = 3 becouse 2 * 3 = 6 (110 has 3 bits).
A problem with this statement is that it starts by asking for two "random" prime numbers. Without any explicit statement of the distribution of the required random primes, we are already stuck. (This is the beginning of a classic paradox, where we are asked to generate a "random" integer.)
But suppose that we change the statement to finding any two arbitrary primes, that yield the desired product with a given number of bits x. The answer is trivial.
The set of numbers that have exactly x bits in their binary representation is the half open set of integers [2^(x-1),2^x-1].
Choose an arbitrary prime number that is less than or equal to (2^x-1)/2. Call it p1.
Next, choose a second prime number that lies in the interval (2^(x-1)/p1,(2^x-1)/p1). Call it p2.
It must be true that p1*p2 will be in the desired interval.
For example, given x = 10, so the product must lie in the interval [512,1023], the set of integers with exactly 10 bits. (Note, there are apparently 147 such numbers in that interval, with exactly two prime factors.)
Step 1:
Choose p1 as any prime no larger than 1023/2 = 511.5. I'll pick p1 = 137. Then the second prime factor must be a prime that lies in the interval
[512 1023]/137
ans =
3.7372 7.4672
thus either 5 or 7.
dec2bin(137*[5 7])
ans =
1010101101
1110111111
If you know the number of bits, you can generate a number 2^(x-2) < x < 2^(x-1). Then take the square root and find the closest primes on either side of it. Multiplying them together will, in most cases, get you a number in the correct range. If it's too high, you can take the two primes directly on the lower side of it.
pseudocode:
x = bits
primelist[] = makeprimelist()
rand = randnum between 2^(x-2) and 2^(x-1)
n = findposition(primelist, rand)
do
result = primelist[n]*primelist[n+1]
n--
while result > 2^(x-1)
Note that numbers generated this way will allways have '1' as the highest significant bit, so would be possible to generate a number of x-1 bits and just tack the 1 onto the end.
I have come across this problem in a calculation I do in my code, where the divisor is 0 if the divident is 0 too. In my code I return 0 for that case. I am wondering, while division by zero is generally undefined, why not make an exception for this case? My understanding why division by zero is undefined is basically that it cannot be reversed. However, I do not see this problem in the case 0/0.
EDIT OK, so this question spawned a lot of discussion. I made the mistake of over-eagerly accepting an answer based on the fact that it received a lot of votes. I now accepted AakashM's answer, because it provides an idea on how to analyze the problem.
Let's say:
0/0 = x
Now, rearranging the equation (multiplying both sides by 0) gives:
x * 0 = 0
Now do you see the problem? There are an infinite number of values for x as anything multiplied by 0 is 0.
This is maths rather than programming, but briefly:
It's in some sense justifiable to assign a 'value' of positive-infinity to some-strictly-positive-quantity / 0, because the limit is well-defined
However, the limit of x / y as x and y both tend to zero depends on the path they take. For example, lim (x -> 0) 2x / x is clearly 2, whereas lim (x -> 0) x / 5x is clearly 1/5. The mathematical definition of a limit requires that it is the same whatever path is followed to the limit.
(Was inspired by Tony Breyal's rather good answer to post one of my own)
Zero is a tricky and subtle beast - it does not conform to the usual laws of algebra as we know them.
Zero divided by any number (except zero itself) is zero. Put more mathematically:
0/n = 0 for all non-zero numbers n.
You get into the tricky realms when you try to divide by zero itself. It's not true that a number divided by 0 is always undefined. It depends on the problem. I'm going to give you an example from calculus where the number 0/0 is defined.
Say we have two functions, f(x) and g(x). If you take their quotient, f(x)/g(x), you get another function. Let's call this h(x).
You can also take limits of functions. For example, the limit of a function f(x) as x goes to 2 is the value that the function gets closest to as it takes on x's that approach 2. We would write this limit as:
lim{x->2} f(x)
This is a pretty intuitive notion. Just draw a graph of your function, and move your pencil along it. As the x values approach 2, see where the function goes.
Now for our example. Let:
f(x) = 2x - 2
g(x) = x - 1
and consider their quotient:
h(x) = f(x)/g(x)
What if we want the lim{x->1} h(x)? There are theorems that say that
lim{x->1} h(x) = lim{x->1} f(x) / g(x)
= (lim{x->1} f(x)) / (lim{x->1} g(x))
= (lim{x->1} 2x-2) / (lim{x->1} x-1)
=~ [2*(1) - 2] / [(1) - 1] # informally speaking...
= 0 / 0
(!!!)
So we now have:
lim{x->1} h(x) = 0/0
But I can employ another theorem, called l'Hopital's rule, that tells me that this limit is also equal to 2. So in this case, 0/0 = 2 (didn't I tell you it was a strange beast?)
Here's another bit of weirdness with 0. Let's say that 0/0 followed that old algebraic rule that anything divided by itself is 1. Then you can do the following proof:
We're given that:
0/0 = 1
Now multiply both sides by any number n.
n * (0/0) = n * 1
Simplify both sides:
(n*0)/0 = n
(0/0) = n
Again, use the assumption that 0/0 = 1:
1 = n
So we just proved that all other numbers n are equal to 1! So 0/0 can't be equal to 1.
walks on back to her home over at mathoverflow.com
Here's a full explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_by_zero
( Including the proof that 1 = 2 :-) )
You normally deal with this in programming by using an if statement to get the desired behaviour for your application.
The problem is with the denominator. The numerator is effectively irrelevant.
10 / n
10 / 1 = 10
10 / 0.1 = 100
10 / 0.001 = 1,000
10 / 0.0001 = 10,000
Therefore: 10 / 0 = infinity (in the limit as n reaches 0)
The Pattern is that as n gets smaller, the results gets bigger. At n = 0, the result is infinity, which is a unstable or non-fixed point. You can't write infinity down as a number, because it isn't, it's a concept of an ever increasing number.
Otherwise, you could think of it mathematically using the laws on logarithms and thus take division out of the equation altogther:
log(0/0) = log(0) - log(0)
BUT
log(0) = -infinity
Again, the problem is the the result is undefined because it's a concept and not a numerical number you can input.
Having said all this, if you're interested in how to turn an indeterminate form into a determinate form, look up l'Hopital's rule, which effectively says:
f(x) / g(x) = f'(x) / g'(x)
assuming the limit exists, and therefore you can get a result which is a fixed point instead of a unstable point.
Hope that helps a little,
Tony Breyal
P.S. using the rules of logs is often a good computational way to get around the problems of performing operations which result in numbers which are so infinitesimal small that given the precision of a machine’s floating point values, is indistinguishable from zero. Practical programming example is 'maximum likelihood' which generally has to make use of logs in order to keep solutions stable
Look at division in reverse: if a/b = c then c*b = a. Now, if you substitute a=b=0, you end up with c*0 = 0. But ANYTHING multiplied by zero equals zero, so the result can be anything at all. You would like 0/0 to be 0, someone else might like it to be 1 (for example, the limiting value of sin(x)/x is 1 when x approaches 0). So the best solution is to leave it undefined and report an error.
You may want to look at Dr. James Anderson's work on Transarithmetic. It isn't widely accepted.
Transarithmetic introduces the term/number 'Nullity' to take the value of 0/0, which James likens to the introduction 'i' and 'j'.
The structure of modern math is set by mathematicians who think in terms of axioms.
Having additional axioms that aren't productive and don't really allow one to do more stuff is against the ideal of having clear math.
How many times does 0 go into 0? 5. Yes - 5 * 0 = 0, 11. Yes - 11 * 0 = 0, 43. Yes - 43 * 0 = 0. Perhaps you can see why it's undefined now? :)
Since x/y=z should be equivalent to x=yz, and any z would satisfy 0=0z, how useful would such an 'exception' be?
Another explanation of why 0/0 is undefined is that you could write:
0/0 = (4 - 4)/0 = 4/0 - 4/0
And 4/0 is undefined.
If a/b = c, then a = b * c.
In the case of a=0 and b=0, c can be anything because 0 * c = 0 will be true for all possible values of c. Therefore, 0/0 is undefined.
This is only a Logical answer not a mathamatical one,
imagine Zero as empty how can you Divide an empty by an empty this is the case in division by zero also how can you divide by something which is empty.
0 means nothing, so if you have nothing, it does not imply towards anything to distribute to anything. Some Transit Facilities when they list out the number of trips of a particular line, trip number 0 is usually the special route that is routed in a different way. Typically, a good example would be in the Torrance Transit Systems where Line 2 has a trip before the first trip known as trip number 0 that operates on weekdays only, that trip in particular is trip number 0 because it is a specialized route that is routed differently from all the other routes.
See the following web pages for details:
http://transit.torrnet.com/PDF/Line-2_MAP.pdf
http://transit.torrnet.com/PDF/Line-2_Time_PDF.pdf
On the map, trip number 0 is the trip that is mapped in dotted line, the solid line maps the regular routing.
Sometimes 0 can be used on numbering the trips a route takes where it is considered the "Express Service" route.
why not make an exception for this
case?
Because:
as others said, it's not that easy;)
there's no application for defining 0/0 - adding exception would complicate mathematics for no gains.
This is what I'd do:
function div(a, b) {
if(b === 0 && a !== 0) {
return undefined;
}
if(b === 0 && a === 0) {
return Math.random;
}
return a/b;
}
When you type in zero divided by zero, there's an error because whatever you multiply zero from will be zero so it could be any number.
As Andrzej Doyle said:
Anything dived by zero is infinity. 0/0 is also infinity. You can't get 0/0 = 1. That's the basic principle of maths. That's how the whole world goes round. But you can sure edit a program to say "0/0 is not possible" or "Cannot divide by zero" as they say in cell phones.