Department of Applied Mechanics

APL 103

Experimental Methods
Semester I, 2020-21

L2

Murali R Cholemari
 Experimental Analysis
• How many days does it rain in Delhi?
• Some years it rains on more no. of days, some years it rains on less no. of
days.
• Say, we record the no. of days in the year on which it rains – say over hundred
and fifteen years. No. of days of rain xi No. of years ni
<25 3
25 4
26 5
27 10
28 20
29 32
30 22
31 11
32 5 How do we understand
>32 3 this??
 Pictorial representation (histogram)
35 Frequency
30 Distribution
Delhi
25
frequency
No. of years

20

15

10

0
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
No. of Days

How many days it is most likely to rain next year??

• How many days does it rain in Bombay?
• It definitely rains more!
• The no. of days in the year on which it rains – say over hundred and fifty
years.
No. of days of rain xi No. of years ni
<75 9
75 9
76 10
77 15
78 25
79 42
80 27
81 16
82 10 How do we understand
>82 7 this??
 Histogram
45 Frequency
40
Distribution
35
Bombay
30
No. of years

25

20

15

10

0
75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 82
No. of Days

How many days it is most likely to rain next year??

Comparison?
• How do we compare the two cities?
• Observation: It definitely rains more in Bombay. But,
• On an average how many days more?
• What is the most no. of days likely?
• Least no. of days likely?
• We saw frequency distributions, which are pictorial representations
of the frequency of occurrence fi vs the event values xi
• Let the total number of events (note: discrete events!) σ𝑖 𝑛𝑖 = 𝑁
• Define relative frequency: 𝑓𝑖 = 𝑛𝑖/𝑁
 Relative frequency distribution fi vs xi

0.3
0.3
0.25
0.25
0.2 Delhi 0.2 Bombay
0.15 0.15
fi

fi
0.1 0.1
0.05
0.05
0
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 0
75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 82
No. of Days
No. of Days

Note that σfi= 1 . The frequency distribution is normalized

Limiting frequency distribution
• As a limiting distribution of a very large number of data points –
ideally infinite number.
• Fluctuations between distributions with smaller sized samples are
smoothed out.
• Represents the underlying physical phenomenon.
• Is an idealization (for the ‘infinite experiment’)
• Frequencies represented without subscript: 𝑓 𝑥𝑖
Continuous variables?
• E.g. Amount of rain on a given day?
• > define intervals and count the occurrences within these intervals —this
is now discrete
• Let 𝑥 be continuous, choose intervals 𝑥0 , 𝑥1 … . . 𝑥𝑚 . If frequencies within
these intervals are 𝑛1 , 𝑛2 , 𝑛3 … 𝑛𝑚 , then the relative frequencies are (n is
the total number of observations):
• 𝑛1 Τ𝑛 with 𝑥0 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥1 ,
• 𝑛2 Τ𝑛 with 𝑥1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥2 ,

• 𝑛𝑚 Τ𝑛 with 𝑥𝑚−1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥𝑚 .
• Note: σ𝑖 𝑛𝑖 Τ𝑛 = 1 , the definition is normalized.
Continuous variables
• The heights of the histogram 𝑓𝑛 𝑥1 , 𝑓𝑛 𝑥2 , ⋯ 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑚 such that
• 𝑥1 − 𝑥0 𝑓𝑛 𝑥1 = 𝑛1 Τ𝑛 is the relative frequency in 𝑥0 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥1
• 𝑥2 − 𝑥1 𝑓𝑛 𝑥2 = 𝑛2 Τ𝑛 is the relative frequency in 𝑥1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥2

• 𝑥𝑚 − 𝑥𝑚−1 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑚 = 𝑛𝑚 Τ𝑛 is the relative frequency in 𝑥m−1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑥m

• Area under the histogram

𝑛𝑖
• σ𝑖 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖−1 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑖 = ෍ = 1 --- Normalized!
𝑖 𝑛

• Note that the intervals 𝑥1 − 𝑥0 , 𝑥2 − 𝑥1 … need not be equal.

• Note also: 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑖 is the relative frequency per unit interval – the actual relative
frequency in the ith interval is 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖−1 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑖 .
Continuous Distribution
• How do we relate the two histograms? One for the discrete variable
and one for the continuous variable?
• Consider a smooth curve through a discrete value distribution

𝐹𝑛 𝑥 𝐹𝑛 𝑥1 = 𝑓𝑛 𝑥1 , 𝐹𝑛 𝑥2 = 𝑓𝑛 𝑥2 ⋯

𝑥1 𝑥2 𝑥𝑚
Histogram of a continuous variable
• 𝐹𝑛 𝑥 approximately equal to the height of
rectangle at the midpoint of the interval
• Corresponding areas are equal:
𝑥𝑖
‫ 𝑥 𝑛𝐹 𝑥׬‬ⅆ𝑥 = 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖−1 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑖
𝑖−1
• Hence,
∞
𝐹𝑛 𝑥 • ‫׬‬−∞ 𝐹𝑛 𝑥 ⅆ𝑥=σ𝑖 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖−1 𝑓𝑛 𝑥𝑖
𝑛𝑖
=෍ =1
𝑛
𝑖
• 𝐹𝑛 𝑥 is called the continuous frequency
distribution curve