Ngl.betainc
Evaluates the incomplete beta function.
Available in version 1.3.0 or later.
Prototype
alpha = Ngl.betainc(x, a, b)
Arguments
xNumpy or masked array representing upper limit of integration. x must be [0,1].
aFirst beta distribution parameter; must be > 0.0, and the same dimensionality as x.
bSecond beta distribution parameter; must be > 0.0, and the same dimensionality as x.
Return value
alphaAn numpy or masked array is returned (depending on type of x), of the same size as x. If x is a masked array, then alpha will contain missing values in the same locations.
Description
Ngl.betainc calculates the incomplete beta function. The incomplete beta function ratio is the probability that a random variable from a beta distribution having parameters a and b will be less than or equal to x. The code used is from SLATEC (http://www.netlib.org/slatec/fnlib/). This returns the same answers as the Numerical Recipes [Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986] function betai.
This function is often used to determine probabilities.
Examples
Example 1
import Ngl a = 0.5 b = 5.0 x = 0.2 alpha = Ngl.betainc(x,a,b) print "alpha(x,a,b) = ",alpha x = 0.5 alpha = Ngl.betainc(x,a,b) print "alpha(x,a,b) = ",alphaThe result is:
alpha(x,a,b) = [ 0.85507239] alpha(x,a,b) = [ 0.98988044]
Example 2
This function can be used as a p-Value calculator for the Student t-test. Let's say a calculation has been made where the degrees-of-freedom (df=20) and a Student-t value of 2.08 has been determined. A probability level may be determined via:
import Ngl df = 20 tval = 2.08 prob = Ngl.betainc( df/(df+tval^2), df/2.0, 0.5) print "prob=",prob
The result is prob = 0.0506. This is a two-tailed probability. The one-tailed probability is 0.5*prob = 0.0253.
For plotting, users often prefer to plot the quantity:
prob = (1.-Ngl.betainc(x,a,b))*100. ; probability in %