Estimating Future Velocity w/ Radar Gun & Internal Error

  • Thread starter Thread starter NoobixCube
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Future
NoobixCube
Messages
154
Reaction score
0
Suppose I have a radar gun that can measure velocity with an internal error with a mean of 3 m/s and a standard deviation of 1m/s on that error
eg velocity
10 +- 2.8
6 +- 3.1
21 +- 3.2and so on. Now I want to make a prediction of the future when I get a new radar gun. It will have an internal error of roughly 1m/s
How then do I scale the std deviation? by a factor of three?
Thanks all!
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
A change in the mean doesn't have to change the standard deviation.
The standard deviation could still be 1m/s.

For example {3,4,5,3,4,5} and {7,8,9,7,8,9} have the same standard deviation but different means.

You really need more data to establish a future variance and standard deviation.
 
If you were to make an educated guess would it make sense to scale the std?
What other data would you need?
 
NoobixCube said:
If you were to make an educated guess would it make sense to scale the std?

No, not without more information.

NoobixCube said:
What other data would you need?

You need to know if the variance has changed.

If your future radar gun is no more precise, but simply more accurately calibrated, your average will change but the variance and std.dev. will not.
 
I would think that math could explain & tell every little detail about the future, however I think that you would have to have an equation for everything, so until this "Quantum Theory" stuff is solved. Until then, I think all you 'can' do is make an educated guess. : )
 
Last edited:
Namaste & G'day Postulate: A strongly-knit team wins on average over a less knit one Fundamentals: - Two teams face off with 4 players each - A polo team consists of players that each have assigned to them a measure of their ability (called a "Handicap" - 10 is highest, -2 lowest) I attempted to measure close-knitness of a team in terms of standard deviation (SD) of handicaps of the players. Failure: It turns out that, more often than, a team with a higher SD wins. In my language, that...
Hi all, I've been a roulette player for more than 10 years (although I took time off here and there) and it's only now that I'm trying to understand the physics of the game. Basically my strategy in roulette is to divide the wheel roughly into two halves (let's call them A and B). My theory is that in roulette there will invariably be variance. In other words, if A comes up 5 times in a row, B will be due to come up soon. However I have been proven wrong many times, and I have seen some...
Back
Top