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Graphical analyses of bimodal frequency distributions with an example using Cancer pagurus
Author(s) -
ALDRICH JOHN C.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1987.tb01536.x
Subject(s) - biology , range (aeronautics) , frequency distribution , statistics , scale (ratio) , mathematics , physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , composite material
Mixtures of two normal distributions were generated to serve as guides for probability paper analyses. Three families of curves are presented, with three relative proportions of vertical range in distributions ‘A’ and ‘B’ (1:0‐5, 1:1, 1:2), three proportional ranges on the probability scale (0‐5:0‐5, 0–75:0‐25,0–88:0‐12), and degrees of overlap from 0 to 83 %. These plots are better guides to the appearance of such mixed distributions than several published formulae, and have the advantage that the results can be ‘seen’. A practical example of the use of these plots is presented, based upon oxygen consumption in the crab Cancer pagurus L.