On the limit of sensitivity and the analytical error

Mathematics

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Scientific paper

When a part of the results of a geochemical series falls below the limit of sensitivity of the analytical method, classical formulae for the estimation of the mean and the standard deviation are no longer valid. If however, it may be assumed that the population is homogeneous, and that the distribution law of the variable (or some transformation of it) may be fitted to a Gaussian distribution, different methods of estimation may be used. The one given here is based on the method of maximum likelihood and is presented as a programme written in Fortran. Examples have shown that the mean and the standard deviation may be estimated with it. Even when almost half of the results were under the sensitivity limit, the relative error was only a few per cent. The effect of the analytical error was tentatively taken into account with the help of a mathematical model. The same programme also gives better estimates than the classical formulae when the results are grouped in very few classes, as is often the case with semi-quantitative analyses.

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