Published equation contexts
Why this formula appears here
It is tempting to model manuscript transmission as pure decay. If is the probability that generation i of a copy reproduces a given passage faithfully, then fidelity after n generations of independent copying is . which for any constant per-generation fidelity below one falls exponentially in n . The model is illustrative and its value lies in the assumption it exposes rather than in any number it produces. It assumes errors accumulate independently and are never removed. The correction apparatus is exactly the violation of that assumption: a corrector comparing a copy against another exemplar can subtract error as well as add it, which is why long manuscript…
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Symbol i
i appears in the bound of this product. The bound states where the repeated operation starts, ends, or which values it includes.
Read this term in its guide →Symbol n
n appears in the bound of this product. The bound states where the repeated operation starts, ends, or which values it includes.
Read this term in its guide →Symbol f_i
the probability that generation i of a copy reproduces a given passage faithfully.
Read this term in its guide →Starting index or lower bound: i=1
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation starts. Read its value or condition together with the article’s description of the index.
Read this term in its guide →Ending index or upper bound: n
This label says where the repeated addition, multiplication, or accumulation stops. It sets the last term or end of the range.
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Published contexts (1)
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Equation 4 · Writing & Information
Standardising the Record: How Writing Became Evidence
This equation states an equality: the expressions on both sides have the same value under the article’s assumptions.
It is tempting to model manuscript transmission as pure decay. If is the probability that generation i of a copy reproduces a given passage faithfully, then fidelity after n generations of independent copying is . which for any constant per-generation fidelity below one falls exponentially in n . The model is illustrative and its value lies in the assumption it exposes rather than in any number it produces. It assumes errors accumulate independently and are never removed. The correction apparatus is exactly the violation of that assumption: a corrector comparing a copy against another exemplar can subtract error as well as add it, which is why long manuscript…
Meanings in this article
- : fidelity after n generations of independent copying.
- : the probability that generation i of a copy reproduces a given passage faithfully.