Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T16:06:42.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A polynomial that is a statistical prism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Mike Osborne
Affiliation:
HRPP, 6-3, Gulf International Bank, Al Dowali Building, 3 Palace Avenue, PO Box 1017, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. email: [email protected]
Mark Osborne
Affiliation:
Lindy Boggs Center, Dept of Chemical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118 USA. email: [email protected]

Extract

The roots of a polynomial can be represented as points in the complex plane. The time value of money (TVM) equation that is commonly used in finance is a polynomial equation. (See the appendix for a short description of the TVM equation and an example of its use in finance.) In [1] and [2] it is shown that concepts from financial mathematics can be obtained from the pattern of the roots of the TVM equation. The concepts are given in terms of distances between the roots and other salient points in the plane. This note shows that this particular polynomial, and the technique, can be applied more generally. When a series of data is fed into the coefficients of the polynomial, the mean and standard deviation of the data are seen in the complex plane as combinations of distances between the roots and other salient points. The results are aesthetically pleasing as well as mathematically interesting.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)