[R] [FORGED] Re: How to correct documentation?

[Rolf Turner]

On 24/10/15 21:10, Jim Lemon wrote:
> Hi Ming,
> In fact, the notation lb/1000 is correct, as the values represent the
> weight of the cars in pounds (lb) divided by 1000. I am not sure why this
> particular transformation of the measured values was used, but I'm sure it
> has caused confusion previously.

I disagree --- and agree with Ming.  The notation is incorrect.  Surely
"lb/1000" means thousandths of pounds.  E.g. 12345 lb/1000 is equal to
12.345 lb.

I'm sure that others will come up with all sorts of convoluted lawyerish 
arguments that the case is otherwise, but as far as I am concerned, any 
*sane* person would interpret "lb/1000" to mean thousandths of pounds.

If in the unlikely event that the documentation for some data set said 
"Weight (gm/1000)", I'm pretty sure that this would be interpreted to 
mean milligrams and *not* kilograms!

Since the description of the data was presumably taken from that given 
in the original source ("Motor Trend" magazine) it would probably be 
inappropriate to "correct" it.  However a note/warning should be added 
to the mtcars help file indicating that Motor Trend got things upside-down.

cheers,

Rolf

-- 
Technical Editor ANZJS
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276

> On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 11:59 AM, Ming-Lun Ho <minglho at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>      I used "?mtcars" to read the documentation for the dataset. I found a
>> mistake in how unit is listed, namely, that for the variable "wt," the unit
>> should be listed as "1000 lb," not "lb/1000." However, I don't know whom to
>> contact exactly for the correction. Please point me to the right place.
>>      Thanks.
>>            --Ming