Examples¶
These are some basic examples of use of the package:
julia> using Measurements
julia> a = measurement(4.5, 0.1)
4.5 ± 0.1
julia> b = 3.8 ± 0.4
3.8 ± 0.4
julia> 2a + b
12.8 ± 0.4472135954999579
julia> a - 1.2b
-0.05999999999999961 ± 0.49030602688525043
julia> l = measurement(0.936, 1e-3);
julia> T = 1.942 ± 4e-3;
julia> g = 4pi^2*l/T^2
9.797993213510699 ± 0.041697817535336676
julia> c = measurement(4)
4.0 ± 0.0
julia> a*c
18.0 ± 0.4
julia> sind(94 ± 1.2)
0.9975640502598242 ± 0.0014609761696991563
julia> x = 5.48 ± 0.67;
julia> y = 9.36 ± 1.02;
julia> log(2x^2 - 3.4y)
3.3406260917568824 ± 0.5344198747546611
julia> atan2(y, x)
1.0411291003154137 ± 0.07141014208254456
Measurements from Strings¶
You can construct Measurement{Float64}
objects from strings. Within
parentheses there is the uncertainty referred to the corresponding last digits.
julia> measurement("-12.34(56)")
-12.34 ± 0.56
julia> measurement("+1234(56)e-2")
12.34 ± 0.56
julia> measurement("123.4e-1 +- 0.056e1")
12.34 ± 0.56
julia> measurement("(-1.234 ± 0.056)e1")
-12.34 ± 0.56
julia> measurement("1234e-2 +/- 0.56e0")
12.34 ± 0.56
julia> measurement("-1234e-2")
-12.34 ± 0.0
It is also possible to use parse(Measurement{T}, string)
to parse the
string
as a Measurement{T}
, with T<:AbstractFloat
. This has been
tested with standard numeric floating types (Float16
, Float32
,
Float64
, and BigFloat
).
julia> parse(Measurement{Float16}, "19.5 ± 2.8")
19.5 ± 2.8
julia> parse(Measurement{Float32}, "-7.6 ± 0.4")
-7.6 ± 0.4
julia> parse(Measurement{Float64}, "4 ± 1.3")
4.0 ± 1.3
julia> parse(Measurement{BigFloat}, "+5.1 ± 3.3")
5.099999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999986 ± 3.299999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999993
Correlation Between Variables¶
Here you can see examples of how functionally correlated variables are treated within the package:
julia> x = 8.4 ± 0.7
8.4 ± 0.7
julia> x - x
0.0 ± 0.0
julia> x/x
1.0 ± 0.0
julia> x*x*x - x^3
0.0 ± 0.0
julia> sin(x)/cos(x) - tan(x)
-2.220446049250313e-16 ± 0.0
# They are equal within numerical accuracy
julia> y = -5.9 ± 0.2
julia> beta(x, y) - gamma(x)*gamma(y)/gamma(x + y)
0.0 ± 3.979039320256561e-14
You will get similar results for a variable that is a function of an already
existing Measurement
object:
julia> u = 2x
julia> (x + x) - u
0.0 ± 0.0
julia> u/2x
1.0 ± 0.0
julia> u^3 - 8x^3
0.0 ± 0.0
julia> cos(x)^2 - (1 + cos(u))/2
0.0 ± 0.0
A variable that has the same nominal value and uncertainty as u
above but is
not functionally correlated with x
will give different outcomes:
# Define a new measurement but with same nominal value
# and uncertainty as u, so v is not correlated with x
julia> v = 16.8 ± 1.4
julia> (x + x) - v
0.0 ± 1.979898987322333
julia> v / 2x
1.0 ± 0.11785113019775792
julia> v^3 - 8x^3
0.0 ± 1676.4200705455657
julia> cos(x)^2 - (1 + cos(v))/2
0.0 ± 0.8786465354843539
@uncertain
Macro¶
Macro @uncertain
can be used to propagate uncertainty in arbitrary real or
complex functions of real arguments, including functions not natively supported
by this package.
julia> @uncertain (x -> complex(zeta(x), exp(eta(x)^2)))(2 ± 0.13)
(1.6449340668482273 ± 0.12188127308075564) + (1.9668868646839253 ± 0.042613944993428333)im
julia> @uncertain log(9.4 ± 1.3, 58.8 ± 3.7)
1.8182372640255153 ± 0.11568300475873611
julia> log(9.4 ± 1.3, 58.8 ± 3.7)
1.8182372640255153 ± 0.11568300475593848
You usually do not need to define a wrapping function before using it. In the case where you have to define a function, like in the first line of previous examples, anonymous functions allow you to do it in a very concise way.
The macro works with functions calling C/Fortran functions as well. For
example, Cuba.jl package performs
numerical integration by wrapping the C Cuba
library. You can define a function to numerically compute with Cuba.jl
the
integral defining the error function and pass it to @uncertain
macro. Compare the result with that of the erf
function, natively supported
in Measurements.jl
package
julia> using Cuba
julia> cubaerf(x::Real) =
2x/sqrt(pi)*cuhre((t, f) -> f[1] = exp(-abs2(t[1]*x)))[1][1]
cubaerf (generic function with 1 method)
julia> @uncertain cubaerf(0.5 ± 0.01)
0.5204998778130466 ± 0.008787825789336267
julia> erf(0.5 ± 0.01)
0.5204998778130465 ± 0.008787825789354449
Also here you can use an anonymous function instead of defining the cubaerf
function, do it as an exercise. Remember that if you want to numerically
integrate a function that returns a Measurement
object you can use
QuadGK.jl
package, which is written purely in Julia and in addition allows
you to set Measurement
objects as endpoints, see below.
Tip
Note that the argument of @uncertain
macro must be a function call whose
arguments are Measurement
objects. Thus,
julia> @uncertain zeta(13.4 ± 0.8) + eta(8.51 ± 0.67)
will not work because here the outermost function is +
, whose arguments
are zeta(13.4 ± 0.8)
and eta(8.51 ± 0.67)
, that however cannot be
calculated. You can use the @uncertain
macro on each function
separately:
julia> @uncertain(zeta(13.4 ± 0.8)) + @uncertain(eta(8.51 ± 0.67))
1.9974303172187315 ± 0.0012169293212062773
The type of all the arguments provided must be Measurement
. If one of
the arguments is actually an exact number (so without uncertainty), promote
it to Measurement
type:
julia> atan2(10, 13.5 ± 0.8)
0.6375487981386927 ± 0.028343666961913202
julia> @uncertain atan2(10 ± 0, 13.5 ± 0.8)
0.6375487981386927 ± 0.028343666962347438
In addition, the function must be differentiable in all its arguments. For
example, the polygamma function of order \(m\), polygamma(m, x)
, is
the \(m+1\)-th derivative of the logarithm of gamma function, and is not
differentiable in the first argument. Not even the trick of passing an exact
measurement would work, because the first argument must be an integer. You
can easily work around this limitation by wrapping the function in a
single-argument function:
julia> @uncertain (x -> polygamma(0, x))(4.8 ± 0.2)
1.4608477407291167 ± 0.046305812845734776
julia> digamma(4.8 ± 0.2) # Exact result
1.4608477407291167 ± 0.04630581284451362
Complex Measurements¶
Here are a few examples about uncertainty propagation of complex-valued measurements.
julia> u = complex(32.7 ± 1.1, -3.1 ± 0.2)
julia> v = complex(7.6 ± 0.9, 53.2 ± 3.4)
julia> 2u + v
(73.0 ± 2.3769728648009427) + (47.0 ± 3.4234485537247377)im
julia> sqrt(u * v)
(33.004702573592 ± 1.0831254428098636) + (25.997507418428984 ± 1.1082833691607152)im
You can also verify the Euler’s formula
julia> cis(u)
(6.27781144696534 ± 23.454542573739754) + (21.291738410228678 ± 8.112997844397572)im
julia> cos(u) + sin(u)*im
(6.277811446965339 ± 23.454542573739754) + (21.291738410228678 ± 8.112997844397572)im
Arbitrary Precision Calculations¶
If you performed an exceptionally good experiment that gave you extremely
precise results (that is, with very low relative error), you may want to use
arbitrary precision
(or multiple precision) calculations, in order not to loose significance of the
experimental results. Luckily, Julia natively supports this type of arithmetic
and so Measurements.jl
does. You only have to create Measurement
objects with nominal value and uncertainty of type BigFloat
.
Tip
As explained in the Julia documentation, it is
better to use the big
string literal to initialize an arbitrary precision
floating point constant, instead of the BigFloat
and big
functions.
See examples below.
For example, you want to measure a quantity that is the product of two
observables \(a\) and \(b\), and the expected value of the product is
\(12.00000007\). You measure \(a = 3.00000001 \pm (1\times 10^{-17})\)
and \(b = 4.0000000100000001 \pm (1\times 10^{-17})\) and want to compute
the standard score of the product with stdscore()
. Using the ability of
Measurements.jl
to perform arbitrary precision calculations you discover
that
julia> a = big"3.00000001" ± big"1e-17"
julia> b = big"4.0000000100000001" ± big"1e-17"
julia> stdscore(a * b, big"12.00000007")
7.999999997599999878080000420160000093695993825308195353920411656927305928530607
the measurement significantly differs from the expected value and you make a great discovery. Instead, if you used double precision accuracy, you would have wrongly found that your measurement is consistent with the expected value:
julia> stdscore((3.00000001 ± 1e-17)*(4.0000000100000001 ± 1e-17), 12.00000007)
0.0
and you would have missed an important prize due to the use of an incorrect arithmetic.
Of course, you can perform any mathematical operation supported in
Measurements.jl
using arbitrary precision arithmetic:
julia> hypot(a, b)
5.000000014000000080399999974880000423919999216953595312794907845334503498479533 ± 1.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000009e-17
julia> log(2a) ^ b
1.030668110995484998145373137400169442058573718746529435800255440973153647087416e+01 ± 9.744450581349822034766870718391736028419817951565653507621645979913795265663606e-17
Operations with Arrays and Linear Algebra¶
You can create arrays of Measurement
objects and perform mathematical
operations on them in the most natural way possible:
julia> A = [1.03 ± 0.14, 2.88 ± 0.35, 5.46 ± 0.97]
3-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
1.03±0.14
2.88±0.35
5.46±0.97
julia> B = [0.92 ± 0.11, 3.14 ± 0.42, 4.67 ± 0.58]
3-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
0.92±0.11
3.14±0.42
4.67±0.58
julia> exp.(sqrt.(B)) .- log.(A)
3-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
2.57996±0.202151
4.82484±0.707663
6.98252±1.17829
julia> @. cos(A) ^ 2 + sin(A) ^ 2
3-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
1.0±0.0
1.0±0.0
1.0±0.0
If you originally have separate arrays of values and uncertainties, you can
create an array of Measurement
objects using measurement
or ±
with
the dot syntax
for vectorizing functions:
julia> C = measurement.([174.9, 253.8, 626.3], [12.2, 19.4, 38.5])
3-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
174.9±12.2
253.8±19.4
626.3±38.5
julia> sum(C)
1055.0 ± 44.80457565918909
julia> D = [549.4, 672.3, 528.5] .± [7.4, 9.6, 5.2]
3-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
549.4±7.4
672.3±9.6
528.5±5.2
julia> mean(D)
583.4 ± 4.396463225012679
Tip
prod
and sum
(and mean
, which relies on sum
) functions work
out-of-the-box with any iterable of Measurement
objects, like arrays or
tuples. However, these functions have faster methods (quadratic in the
number of elements) when operating on an array of Measurement
s than on a
tuple (in this case the computational complexity is cubic in the number of
elements), so you should use an array if performance is crucial for you, in
particular for large collections of measurements.
Some linear algebra functions work out-of-the-box, without defining specific methods for them. For example, you can solve linear systems, do matrix multiplication and dot product between vectors, find inverse, determinant, and trace of a matrix, do LU and QR factorization, etc.
julia> A = [(14 ± 0.1) (23 ± 0.2); (-12 ± 0.3) (24 ± 0.4)]
2×2 Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},2}:
14.0±0.1 23.0±0.2
-12.0±0.3 24.0±0.4
julia> b = [(7 ± 0.5), (-13 ± 0.6)]
2-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
7.0±0.5
-13.0±0.6
# Solve the linear system Ax = b
julia> x = A \ b
2-element Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},1}:
0.763072±0.0313571
-0.160131±0.0177963
# Verify this is the correct solution of the system
julia> A * x ≈ b
true
julia> dot(x, b)
7.423202614379084 ± 0.5981875954418516
julia> det(A)
611.9999999999999 ± 9.51262319236918
julia> trace(A)
38.0 ± 0.4123105625617661
julia> A * inv(A) ≈ eye(A)
true
julia> lufact(A)
Base.LinAlg.LU{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},2}} with factors L and U:
Measurements.Measurement{Float64}[1.0±0.0 0.0±0.0; -0.857143±0.0222861 1.0±0.0]
Measurements.Measurement{Float64}[14.0±0.1 23.0±0.2; 0.0±0.0 43.7143±0.672403]
julia> qrfact(A)
Base.LinAlg.QR{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},Array{Measurements.Measurement{Float64},2}}(Measurements.Measurement{Float64}[-18.4391±0.209481 -1.84391±0.522154; -0.369924±0.00730266 33.1904±0.331267],Measurements.Measurement{Float64}[1.75926±0.00836088,0.0±0.0])
Derivative, Gradient and Uncertainty Components¶
In order to propagate the uncertainties, Measurements.jl
keeps track of the
partial derivative of an expression with respect to all independent measurements
from which the expression comes. The package provides a convenient function,
Measurements.derivative()
, that returns the partial derivative of an
expression with respect to independent measurements. Its vectorized version can
be used to compute the gradient of an expression with respect to multiple
independent measurements.
julia> x = 98.1 ± 12.7
98.1 ± 12.7
julia> y = 105.4 ± 25.6
105.4 ± 25.6
julia> z = 78.3 ± 14.1
78.3 ± 14.1
julia> Measurements.derivative(2x - 4y, x)
2.0
julia> Measurements.derivative(2x - 4y, y)
-4.0
julia> Measurements.derivative.(log1p(x) + y^2 - cos(x/y), [x, y, z])
3-element Array{Float64,1}:
0.0177005
210.793
0.0 # The expression does not depend on z
Tip
The vectorized version of Measurements.derivative()
is useful in order
to discover which variable contributes most to the total uncertainty of a
given expression, if you want to minimize it. This can be calculated as the
Hadamard (element-wise) product between
the gradient of the expression with respect to the set of variables and the
vector of uncertainties of the same variables in the same order. For
example:
julia> w = y^(3//4)*log(y) + 3x - cos(y/x)
447.0410543780643 ± 52.41813324207829
julia> abs.(Measurements.derivative.(w, [x, y]) .* Measurements.uncertainty.([x, y]))
2-element Array{Float64,1}:
37.9777
36.1297
In this case, the x
variable contributes most to the uncertainty of
w
. In addition, note that the Euclidean norm of the Hadamard product
above is exactly the total uncertainty of the expression:
julia> vecnorm(Measurements.derivative.(w, [x, y]) .* Measurements.uncertainty.([x, y]))
52.41813324207829
The Measurements.uncertainty_components()
function simplifies
calculation of all uncertainty components of a derived quantity:
julia> Measurements.uncertainty_components(w)
Dict{Tuple{Float64,Float64,Float64},Float64} with 2 entries:
(98.1, 12.7, 0.303638) => 37.9777
(105.4, 25.6, 0.465695) => 36.1297
julia> vecnorm(collect(values(Measurements.uncertainty_components(w))))
52.41813324207829
stdscore
Function¶
You can get the distance in number of standard deviations between a measurement
and its expected value (not a Measurement
) using stdscore()
:
julia> stdscore(1.3 ± 0.12, 1)
2.5000000000000004
You can use the same function also to test the consistency of two measurements
by computing the standard score between their difference and zero. This is what
stdscore()
does when both arguments are Measurement
objects:
julia> stdscore((4.7 ± 0.58) - (5 ± 0.01), 0)
-0.5171645175253433
julia> stdscore(4.7 ± 0.58, 5 ± 0.01)
-0.5171645175253433
weightedmean
Function¶
Calculate the weighted and arithmetic means of your set of measurements with
weightedmean()
and mean
respectively:
julia> weightedmean((3.1±0.32, 3.2±0.38, 3.5±0.61, 3.8±0.25))
3.4665384454054498 ± 0.16812474090663868
julia> mean((3.1±0.32, 3.2±0.38, 3.5±0.61, 3.8±0.25))
3.4000000000000004 ± 0.2063673908348894
Measurements.value
and Measurements.uncertainty
Functions¶
Use Measurements.value()
and Measurements.uncertainty()
to get the
values and uncertainties of measurements. They work with real and complex
measurements, scalars or arrays:
julia> Measurements.value(94.5 ± 1.6)
94.5
julia> Measurements.uncertainty(94.5 ± 1.6)
1.6
julia> Measurements.value.([complex(87.3 ± 2.9, 64.3 ± 3.0), complex(55.1 ± 2.8, -19.1 ± 4.6)])
2-element Array{Complex{Float64},1}:
87.3+64.3im
55.1-19.1im
julia> Measurements.uncertainty.([complex(87.3 ± 2.9, 64.3 ± 3.0), complex(55.1 ± 2.8, -19.1 ± 4.6)])
2-element Array{Complex{Float64},1}:
2.9+3.0im
2.8+4.6im
Interplay with Third-Party Packages¶
Measurements.jl
works out-of-the-box with any function taking arguments no
more specific than AbstractFloat
. This makes this library particularly
suitable for cooperating with well-designed third-party packages in order to
perform complicated calculations always accurately taking care of uncertainties
and their correlations, with no effort for the developers nor users.
The following sections present a sample of packages that are known to work with
Measurements.jl
, but many others will interplay with this package as well as
them.
Numerical Integration with QuadGK.jl
¶
The powerful integration routine quadgk
from QuadGK.jl
package is smart
enough to support out-of-the-box integrand functions that return arbitrary
types, including Measurement
:
julia> QuadGK.quadgk(x -> exp(x / (4.73 ± 0.01)), 1, 7)
(14.933307243306032 ± 0.009999988180463411, 0.0 ± 0.010017961523508253)
Measurements.jl
pushes the capabilities of quadgk
further by supporting
also Measurement
objects as endpoints:
julia> QuadGK.quadgk(cos, 1.19 ± 0.02, 8.37 ± 0.05)
(-0.05857827689796702 ± 0.02576650561689427, 2.547162480937004e-11)
Compare this with the expected result:
julia> sin(8.37 ± 0.05) - sin(1.19 ± 0.02)
-0.058578276897966686 ± 0.02576650561689427
Also with quadgk
correlation is properly taken into account:
julia> a = 6.42 ± 0.03
6.42 ± 0.03
julia> QuadGK.quadgk(sin, -a, a)
(2.484178227707412e-17 ± 0.0, 0.0)
If instead the two endpoints have, by chance, the same nominal value and uncertainty but are not correlated:
julia> QuadGK.quadgk(sin, -6.42 ± 0.03, 6.42 ± 0.03)
(2.484178227707412e-17 ± 0.005786464233000303, 0.0)
Numerical and Automatic Differentiation¶
With Calculus.jl package it
is possible to perform numerical differentiation using finite differencing. You
can pass in to the Calculus.derivative
function both functions returning
Measurement
objects and a Measurement
as the point in which to calculate
the derivative.
julia> using Measurements, Calculus
julia> a = -45.7 ± 1.6
-45.7 ± 1.6
julia> b = 36.5 ± 6.0
36.5 ± 6.0
julia> Calculus.derivative(exp, a) ≈ exp(a)
true
julia> Calculus.derivative(cos, b) ≈ -sin(b)
true
julia> Calculus.derivative(t -> log(-t * b)^2, a) ≈ 2log(-a * b)/a
true
Other packages provide automatic differentiation methods. Here is an example with AutoGrad.jl, just one of the packages available:
julia> using AutoGrad
julia> grad(exp)(a) ≈ exp(a)
true
julia> grad(cos)(b) ≈ -sin(b)
true
julia> grad(t -> log(-t * b)^2)(a) ≈ 2log(-a * b)/a
true
However remember that you can always use Measurements.derivative()
to
compute the value (without uncertainty) of the derivative of a Measurement
object.
Use with SIUnits.jl
and Unitful.jl
¶
You can use Measurements.jl
in combination with a third-party package in
order to perform calculations involving physical measurements, i.e. numbers
with uncertainty and physical unit. The details depend on the specific package
adopted. Such packages are, for instance, SIUnits.jl and Unitful.jl. You only have to use the
Measurement
object as the value of the SIQuantity
object (for
SIUnits.jl
) or of the Quantity
object (for Unitful.jl
). Here are a
few examples.
julia> using Measurements, SIUnits, SIUnits.ShortUnits
julia> hypot((3 ± 1)*m, (4 ± 2)*m) # Pythagorean theorem
5.0 ± 1.7088007490635064 m
julia> (50 ± 1)Ω * (13 ± 2.4)*1e-2*A # Ohm's Law
6.5 ± 1.20702112657567 kg m²s⁻³A⁻¹
julia> 2pi*sqrt((5.4 ± 0.3)*m / ((9.81 ± 0.01)*m/s^2)) # Pendulum's period
4.661677707464357 ± 0.1295128435999655 s
julia> using Measurements, Unitful
julia> hypot((3 ± 1)*u"m", (4 ± 2)*u"m") # Pythagorean theorem
5.0 ± 1.7088007490635064 m
julia> (50 ± 1)*u"Ω" * (13 ± 2.4)*1e-2*u"A" # Ohm's Law
6.5 ± 1.20702112657567 A Ω
julia> 2pi*sqrt((5.4 ± 0.3)*u"m" / ((9.81 ± 0.01)*u"m/s^2")) # Pendulum's period
4.661677707464357 ± 0.12951284359996548 s