Predicting Rainfall in a Village: Understanding the Necessary Information

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In predicting rainfall in a village with a 50% chance of rain, a local meteorologist achieves a 75% accuracy rate in his forecasts. To make a perfect prediction, he requires 1 bit of information, but the actual information he utilizes is approximately 0.42 bits. Another participant calculated the information needed differently, arriving at about 0.19 bits based on the accuracy of the predictions. The discussion highlights the complexity of quantifying information in weather predictions and the nuances in calculating bits of information. Overall, the conversation underscores the importance of understanding the statistical basis for meteorological predictions.
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In some village rain falls with probability of 0.5 (statistically), e.g. tomorrow it may or may not fall, the chances are equal.

A local meteorologist gathers information, allowing him only to predict rain falling in the village with average success rate of 75% (about 3 of 4 predictions are correct).

What amount of information allows him to predict rain falling for a given day?
(The information is meaningful only for this particular prediction, no other uses are possible)
 
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You only need 1 bit to learn it perfectly (-lg 0.5), so you're talking about fractions of a bit. I get about 0.42 bits.
 
CRGreathouse said:
You only need 1 bit to learn it perfectly (-lg 0.5), so you're talking about fractions of a bit. I get about 0.42 bits.

Hm... That's interesting. My answer was only about 0.19 bit:
1 - (- 0.75 * lg 0.75 - 0.25 * lg 0.25) bit

Am I wrong?
 
svm said:
Hm... That's interesting. My answer was only about 0.19 bit:
1 - (- 0.75 * lg 0.75 - 0.25 * lg 0.25) bit

Am I wrong?

You're right, I wasn't answering your question. I was saying how much information there was in the 75% prediction total. (Sorry!)
 
I was reading a Bachelor thesis on Peano Arithmetic (PA). PA has the following axioms (not including the induction schema): $$\begin{align} & (A1) ~~~~ \forall x \neg (x + 1 = 0) \nonumber \\ & (A2) ~~~~ \forall xy (x + 1 =y + 1 \to x = y) \nonumber \\ & (A3) ~~~~ \forall x (x + 0 = x) \nonumber \\ & (A4) ~~~~ \forall xy (x + (y +1) = (x + y ) + 1) \nonumber \\ & (A5) ~~~~ \forall x (x \cdot 0 = 0) \nonumber \\ & (A6) ~~~~ \forall xy (x \cdot (y + 1) = (x \cdot y) + x) \nonumber...

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