Tell me more ×
Cross Validated is a question and answer site for statisticians, data analysts, data miners and data visualization experts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite

Say I have n sets of data where each set of data has a binomial distribution. The n sets of data are then combined into one set. If I take the combined set of data, how would I go about detecting that this set is made up from n individual sets ?

I have only a limited background in statistics, so here is an example to clarify the question: I collect the amount of energy used by an appliance at 3pm each day for a number of months Generally the amount of energy used follows these rules: - On Monday to Friday, the appliance uses 3000 kWh (mean value) - On Saturday, the appliance uses 200 kWh (mean value) - On Sunday, the appliance uses 50 kWh (mean value)

I want to be able to take all the 3pm readings every day for a year and then be able to detect that the readings can be broken into the 3 sets as described above. After I deduce that there are 3 sets of data, I plan to calculate the mean value with std dev etc. for each individual set.

share|improve this question
3  
If you take the data every day, don't you know the day of the week? And why would you suppose there is a binomial distribution? – Henry Jun 20 '11 at 21:27
2  
If you have an idea as to the distribution of the energy used in each subgroup, then you may want to look up a mixture model: mixture models – Max Jun 20 '11 at 21:49
@Henry yes, but what I really want to try to achieve is to get a set of data made of of tuples with (energy value, date) and figure out of there is such a relationship like the one where the expected energy is usually around 50kWh on some days and around 3000 kWh on other days. Then I want to algorithm to tell me which days I will expect a higher value and which days I will expect a lower value. – Philip Clarke Jun 22 '11 at 8:29
@Max, thanks I think mixture models are exactly what I need to look at here. – Philip Clarke Jun 22 '11 at 8:31
@Henry it should have been "normal" distribution, thanks for spotting that – Philip Clarke Jun 23 '11 at 15:13
show 1 more comment

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you have an idea as to the distribution of the energy used in each subgroup, then you may want to look at mixture models.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.