Hi Ted, Thanks for the explanation.
I am convinced at least more than average by Eric and your answer. But still have some shadows of confusion that is definitely because I have forgotten some fundamentals in probabilities. In your cube example, the cumulative probability of reaching a point outside the cube (u or v or w > A) is 1 however, the bigger cube does not exists (because the Q is the reference space). Other words, I feel that we extend the space to accommodate any cube of any size! Looks a bit weird to me! Hamed. On Tue, 23 Oct 2018 at 11:52, Ted Harding <ted.hard...@wlandres.net> wrote: > Sorry -- stupid typos in my definition below! > See at ===*** below. > > On Tue, 2018-10-23 at 11:41 +0100, Ted Harding wrote: > Before the ticket finally enters the waste bin, I think it is > necessary to explicitly explain what is meant by the "domain" > of a random variable. This is not (though in special cases > could be) the space of possible values of the random variable. > > Definition of (real-valued) Random Variable (RV): > Let Z be a probability space, i.e. a set {z} of entities z > on which a probability distribution is defined. The entities z > do not need to be numeric. A real-valued RV X is a function > X:Z --> R defined on Z such that, for any z in Z, X(z) is a > real number. The set Z, in tthis context, is (by definitipon) > the *domain* of X, i.e. the space on which X is defined. > It may or may not be (and usually is not) the same as the set > of possible values of X. > > Then. given any real value x0, the CDF of X at x- is Prob[X <= X0]. > The distribution function of X does not define the domain of X. > > As a simple exam[ple: Suppose Q is a cube of side A, consisting of > points z=(u,v,w) with 0 <= u,v,w <= A. Z is the probability space > of points z with a uniform distribution of position within Q. > Define the random variable X:Q --> [0,1] as > ===*** > X[u,v,w) = x/A > > Wrong! That should have been: > > X[u,v,w) = w/A > ===*** > Then X is uniformly distributed on [0,1], the domain of X is Q. > Then for x <= 0 _Prob[X <= x] = 0, for 0 <= x <= 1 Prob(X >=x] = x, > for x >= 1 Prob(X <= x] = 1. These define the CDF. The set of poaaible > values of X is 1-dimensional, and is not the same as the domain of X, > which is 3-dimensional. > > Hopiong this helps! > Ted. > > On Tue, 2018-10-23 at 10:54 +0100, Hamed Ha wrote: > > > Yes, now it makes more sense. > > > > > > Okay, I think that I am convinced and we can close this ticket. > > > > > > Thanks Eric. > > > Regards, > > > Hamed. > > > > > > On Tue, 23 Oct 2018 at 10:42, Eric Berger <ericjber...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > > > Hi Hamed, > > > > That reference is sloppy. Try looking at > > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_distribution_function > > > > and in particular the first example which deals with a Unif[0,1] r.v. > > > > > > > > Best, > > > > Eric > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 12:35 PM Hamed Ha <hamedhas...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > > > >> Hi Eric, > > > >> > > > >> Thank you for your reply. > > > >> > > > >> I should say that your justification makes sense to me. However, I > am in > > > >> doubt that CDF defines by the Pr(x <= X) for all X? that is the > domain of > > > >> RV is totally ignored in the definition. > > > >> > > > >> It makes a conflict between the formula and the theoretical > definition. > > > >> > > > >> Please see page 115 in > > > >> > > > >> > https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FEE8D1tRl30C&printsec=frontcover&dq=statistical+distribution&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjp3PGZmJzeAhUQqxoKHV7OBJgQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=uniform&f=false > > > >> The > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> Thanks. > > > >> Hamed. > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> On Tue, 23 Oct 2018 at 10:21, Eric Berger <ericjber...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > >> > > > >>> Hi Hamed, > > > >>> I disagree with your criticism. > > > >>> For a random variable X > > > >>> X: D - - - > R > > > >>> its CDF F is defined by > > > >>> F: R - - - > [0,1] > > > >>> F(z) = Prob(X <= z) > > > >>> > > > >>> The fact that you wrote a convenient formula for the CDF > > > >>> F(z) = (z-a)/(b-a) a <= z <= b > > > >>> in a particular range for z is your decision, and as you noted this > > > >>> formula will give the wrong value for z outside the interval [a,b]. > > > >>> But the problem lies in your formula, not the definition of the CDF > > > >>> which would be, in your case: > > > >>> > > > >>> F(z) = 0 if z <= a > > > >>> = (z-a)/(b-a) if a <= z <= b > > > >>> = 1 if 1 <= z > > > >>> > > > >>> HTH, > > > >>> Eric > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 12:05 PM Hamed Ha <hamedhas...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > >>> > > > >>>> Hi All, > > > >>>> > > > >>>> I recently discovered an interesting issue with the punif() > function. > > > >>>> Let > > > >>>> X~Uiform[a,b] then the CDF is defined by F(x)=(x-a)/(b-a) for > (a<= x<= > > > >>>> b). > > > >>>> The important fact here is the domain of the random variable X. > Having > > > >>>> said > > > >>>> that, R returns CDF for any value in the real domain. > > > >>>> > > > >>>> I understand that one can justify this by extending the domain of > X and > > > >>>> assigning zero probabilities to the values outside the domain. > However, > > > >>>> theoretically, it is not true to return a value for the CDF > outside the > > > >>>> domain. Then I propose a patch to R function punif() to return an > error > > > >>>> in > > > >>>> this situations. > > > >>>> > > > >>>> Example: > > > >>>> > punif(10^10) > > > >>>> [1] 1 > > > >>>> > > > >>>> > > > >>>> Regards, > > > >>>> Hamed. > > > >>>> > > > >>>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > >>>> > > > >>>> ______________________________________________ > > > >>>> R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > > > >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > > >>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide > > > >>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > > >>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > >>>> > > > >>> > > > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > > > > ______________________________________________ > > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.