Object Library > Applets > Histogram with Error Graph
Click on the horizontal axis in the first graph to select points for a frequency distribution. The frequency distribution is given in the first table, and the corresponding histogram is shown in the first graph. The class width (and hence the number of classes) can be varied with the scroll bar. The vertical axis can be selected as either frequency or relative frequency from the list box.
The second graph shows the error function, which can be selected as either mean square error or mean absolute error. In the first case, the minimum occurs at the mean and the minimum value is the variance. In the second case, the minimum occurs throughout the median interval and the minimum value is the mean absolute deviation from the median.
This experiment is intended to emphasize the interplay between measures of center and measures of spread, by means of an underlying error function. Another goal is to show why mean square error plays a fundamental role in probability and statistics. For a more detailed mathematical analysis, see
Click on the link below to download the Java archive file:
To add the applet to your web page, insert the following in the html file, at the point where you want the applet to appear:
<applet code="edu.uah.math.experiments.ErrorGame.class" archive="ErrorGame.jar"
width="600" height="400"></applet>
The jar file and the html file must be in the same folder.
This width and height dimensions are simply suggestions and can be varied. Generally, components such as graphs and tables expand and contract proportionally, while components such as buttons, scrollbars, dice, and coins are fixed in size.
Copyright © 2001-2003 Kyle Siegrist, Dawn Duehring
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
If you are interested in the Java source code or the Java documentation and object model for this applet, please visit ErrorGame in the Object section of the Library.