[ROOT] Wrong Mean and RMS in histogram subtraction

From: Marc-Andre Pleier (Marc-Andre.Pleier@mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Date: Sat Sep 15 2001 - 17:45:56 MEST


Dear Rooters,

is there anybody who can comment on the following effect?

Just copy the following example into your ROOT-session:

   form1 = new TFormula("form1","abs(sin(x)/x)");
   sqroot = new TF1("sqroot","x*gaus(0) + [3]*form1",0,10);
   sqroot->SetParameters(10,4,1,20);
   h1f = new TH1F("h1f","Test random numbers",200,0,10);
   h1f->SetFillColor(45);
   h1f->FillRandom("sqroot",10000);
   h1f->Draw();
   h1f->Add(h1f, -1.);
   h1f->Draw();

So, what's happening is that you subtract two identical histograms from
each other and get - as expected - an empty histogram as result BUT
the mean and rms are still the same of the original histogram being
subtracted from itself...

I think, what happens is the following:
If you subtract two histograms, their values for sumw (stats[0]) and sumwx
(stats[2]) are added for the resulting histogram instead of being
subtracted.
This will thus result in a wrong mean value.

The way ROOT behaves right now, you can get two identical
(non-empty!) histograms having different MEAN and RMS.

I tried the same in PAW - there everything looks fine, and the
above example would result in an empty histogram with mean = rms = 0.

I tried this for ROOT-versions
3.01/06    29 August 2001 and
2.24/05       25 May 2000.

If there's a good reason for this, I'd really like to know.

Cheers,
Marc-Andre

P.S.: I've posted this already some time ago, but got no answer.
      I still think this is a severe problem...

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  Marc-Andre Pleier                             Tel. : +0049 6221 516506
  MPI Kernphysik                                Fax  : +0049 6221 516603
  Postfach 103980                               Email: Marc-Andre.Pleier
  D-69029 Heidelberg                                   @mpi-hd.mpg.de
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