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Re: Histogram [message #44555 is a reply to message #42715]

Tue, 28 June 2005 11:29

James Kuyper
Messages: 425
Registered: March 2000

Senior Member

James wrote:
> Hi guys !
>
> I have a question regarding histograms in general. Is there a "right"
> criteria (e.g. strict matmematical rule, etc..) of chosing the bin size ?
> I'm playing with some data and obviously the histogram looks differently
> with different bin sizes. Any help and references would be extremely
> helpful !

About 3 decades ago I read an argument, based upon the binomial
distribution, that the maximum number of bins you should use was 1 more
than the logarithm base 2 of the number of data points you're
analyzing, rounded upward. Sorry - I can't give you a reference. I've
no idea how reasonable that argument is in general.

My impression, trying to use this criteria over many years, is that it
works best for data with a distribution that has a wide dynamic range,
like the binomial distribution. For data that is more nearly uniform in
distribution, a larger number of bins seems to give better results.
I've never seen it give more bins than I thought was justified, but it
often gives fewer.

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[Message index]

		Histogram shift By: Michael Wallace on Mon, 21 February 2005 17:11
		Re: Histogram By: Michael Wallace on Tue, 28 June 2005 11:45
		Re: Histogram By: James Kuyper on Tue, 28 June 2005 11:29

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