From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu Sat Mar 11 13:12:52 1995 From: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU Date: Sat Mar 11 13:12:52 1995 Subject: Re: Numbers Status: RO Message-ID: la kris cusku di'e > >More precisely (but not necessarily more accurately), it expresses a random > >variable whose range is 2000-2099 and whose measure of central tendency > >(exactly which measure is unspecified) is 2030. > > It would not be a symmetrical function then, with a range and central > tendency like that. Jorge's method allows arbitrary specification of either > the range (20ji'i30 = 20 to 30) or the central tendency (ji'i20 = about 20), > but not both. Yours allows for both (2ji'i5 = 20 to 29, about 25) but the > range must coincide with exact powers of ten. Not only it must coincide with exact powers of ten. That wouldn't be such a big limitation, because at least you could always express the order of magnitude of the range. The big problem is that you have no freedom at all to choose the range. It has to be of the "..000-...999" form. This is a completely arbitrary set of ranges, and if it makes sense to have non-symmetric uncertainties, then you should be able to choose the non-symmetry. It doesn't make sense to have only a few non-symmetries available. For a number like "23" you can only have a nonsymmetry that extends towards the bigger numbers. For a number like "27", it's the opposite. What's the point? If you ever would need something like "23 with range 20-29", then you would also need "23 with range 17-26" and "23 with range 22-31" and all the others. To have only one of them is not much more than to have none. If such precision is needed, then it has to be available for all of them. > pe'i for normal inexact human speech John's method is exact enough and more > powerful than Jorge's, but it's also less intuitive. Could you explain how it is more powerful? That a given expression is more precise doesn't mean that the method is more powerful. In order to be powerful you need to be able to choose any expression that has the same precision. If you only have a limited set of very precise expressions, then most of the time, you won't have the expresion that you need. Jorge