Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

1998

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Applying Binomial Statistics To Weighted Monte Carlo, Sue Ellen Mccloskey, William C. Hall, Wilfred J. Braithwaite Jan 1998

Applying Binomial Statistics To Weighted Monte Carlo, Sue Ellen Mccloskey, William C. Hall, Wilfred J. Braithwaite

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Weighted Monte Carlo calculations requiring a uniform sampling of the problem-space can suffer from diminished statistical significance because many, if not most, of the randomly-chosen sampling points contribute only slightly to the desired result. Their contribution is reduced in size due the variable-size of the weighting terms. In contrast, none of the randomly-chosen points which are favored by variable size weighting terms will have their statistical significance enhanced beyond that of just one random point in the Monte Carlo sampling. A Monte Carlo analysis was used in earlier work to verify both Gauss' Law and Newton's Shell Theorem. Both examples …