Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The use of log probabilities improves numerical stability, when the probabilities are very small, because of the way in which computers approximate real numbers. [1] Simplicity. Many probability distributions have an exponential form. Taking the log of these distributions eliminates the exponential function, unwrapping the exponent.
If p is a probability, then p/(1 − p) is the corresponding odds; the logit of the probability is the logarithm of the odds, i.e.: = = = = (). The base of the logarithm function used is of little importance in the present article, as long as it is greater than 1, but the natural logarithm with base e is the one most often used.
The corresponding probability of the value labeled "1" can vary between 0 (certainly the value "0") and 1 (certainly the value "1"), hence the labeling; [2] the function that converts log-odds to probability is the logistic function, hence the name.
Because log(x) is the sum of the terms of the form log(1 + 2 −k) corresponding to those k for which the factor 1 + 2 −k was included in the product P, log(x) may be computed by simple addition, using a table of log(1 + 2 −k) for all k. Any base may be used for the logarithm table.
The log-metalog distribution, which is highly shape-flexile, has simple closed forms, can be parameterized with data using linear least squares, and subsumes the log-logistic distribution as a special case. The log-normal distribution, describing variables which can be modelled as the product of many small independent positive variables.
In hydrology, the log-normal distribution is used to analyze extreme values of such variables as monthly and annual maximum values of daily rainfall and river discharge volumes. [ 78 ] The image on the right, made with CumFreq , illustrates an example of fitting the log-normal distribution to ranked annually maximum one-day rainfalls showing ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Another generalized log-logistic distribution is the log-transform of the metalog distribution, in which power series expansions in terms of are substituted for logistic distribution parameters and . The resulting log-metalog distribution is highly shape flexible, has simple closed form PDF and quantile function , can be fit to data with linear ...