Yes, that makes sense, thank you.

One further observation…

> The same reasoning holds for many dimensions, but there is no typical 
> practice as vague as that of providing a point near a place.

I think there’s some very similar practice however of providing multiple values 
for the same dimension, that at least are roundings from the same measurement.

For example the Met’s descriptions have “H. 14 5/16 in. (36.4 cm)” and similar 
[1], ours are the other way around “23 x 16.5 cm (9 1/16 x 6 ½ in.)” [2] as 
does MFA Boson [3], the NGA [4] and many others.

With P90a and P90b we could give a margin of error, but indeed that is not 
common practice that I can find.
So while the true place falls_within the declared approximations, we cannot say 
that both 14 5/16 in. and 36.4 cm are close approximations of the same height. 
They may have both come from different Measurement activities, rather than one 
being calculated from the other, so we can’t use that as a joining entity.

> I suggest to regard any dimension as an approximation, except for counting 
> stable aggregates of things.

Do you mean then to remove the “true quantity” description from the scope notes?

Many thanks,

Rob


[1] 
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/455545?&searchField=All&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=12
[2] http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/34663/
[3] https://collections.mfa.org/objects/58904
[4] https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.4217.html




From: Martin Doerr <[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 11:18 AM
To: Robert Sanderson <[email protected]>, "[email protected]" 
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Crm-sig] NEW ISSUE: Approximate Dimensions

Hi Robert,

I have been a bit sloppy, as always;-).

A phenomenal place is thought to be recognizable within some fuzzy limits. So, 
indeed, all spatial coordinates for a phenomenal place are approximations. For 
those approximations, we normally use the properties "has former or current 
location" or "falls within", which both include the true place. That means, 
that the intersection of all those is still includes the true place. With these 
properties, I can query absolutely where the place is guaranteed not to be, and 
within which limits I find it. With P189, we mean an approximation of unknown 
guaranteed relations to the approximated. So, we cannot query yes or no where 
the real place is in relation to the approximation.

The same reasoning holds for many dimensions, but there is no typical practice 
as vague as that of providing a point near a place.

On the other side, many dimensions are not stable over time. For those, each 
measurement provides another dimension. Many measurements are given with 
statistical deviation values. The scenario intersecting all measurements to get 
closer to the real value normally does not hold. It will be a combination of 
measurement deviations and varying "real value", and intrinsic fuzziness of the 
property measured.

Therefore I suggest to regard any dimension as an approximation, except for 
counting stable aggregates of things.

Would that make sense:-)?

Best,

Martin

On 10/16/2019 6:54 PM, Robert Sanderson wrote:
Thanks Martin!  A couple of clarifying questions, please …

> The point is, that true numerical values of Dimensions do not exist for 
> continuous value spaces.

Could you explain how you see this being different for E53 Place? The true 
Place also doesn’t exist as space is also continuous. Doubly so as the 
definition of place says it is independent of matter. No matter how precise I 
am about a lat/long/altitude, I still could be more precise. Or more precise 
about a location relative to an object as a frame of reference; notably as this 
frame of reference would need to be measured … which would mean that Place 
would rely on the Dimensions. So it seems like we can reduce the Place 
approximation to a Dimension approximation, at least in the case of relative 
coordinate spaces.

> For any approximation with known inclusion or overlap properties to the real 
> place, P189 should NOT be used. A "real place" can be confirmed by multiple 
> observations for things that do not move or have not moved.

And also for this … how would we have multiple observations of the Place, such 
that it was clear that they were all approximations of a single phenomenal 
place, without using P189?  For example, I have a bounding box for my city of 
birth, and a centroid pin for it … I wasn’t born in two places, yet without 
using P189, I would need to have two P7s … no? What am I missing? 😊

Many thanks,

Rob


From: Crm-sig 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> on behalf 
of Martin Doerr <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>
Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 8:18 AM
To: "[email protected]"<mailto:[email protected]> 
<[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Crm-sig] NEW ISSUE: Approximate Dimensions

Dear Robert, All,

Your proposal well taken, but the recent change in the scope note was exactly 
that "The properties of the class E54 Dimension allow for expressing the 
numerical approximation of the values of instances of E54 Dimension. ".

The point is, that true numerical values of Dimensions do not exist for 
continuous value spaces. Therefore, any measurement and opinion about the 
values are approximations.So, there is no need for another property. 
Measurements have typically known tolerances, which may be statistical, as mean 
deviations, or absolute.

The property P189 was introduced because of the huge number of geo-referenced 
resource with no indication how distant or different the approximating area is 
from the real place. For any approximation with known inclusion or overlap 
properties to the real place, P189 should NOT be used. A "real place" can be 
confirmed by multiple observations for things that do not move or have not 
moved.

This scenario does not exist in the same way for dimensions in general.

I recommend to adjust scope notes and guidelines adequately. If a dimension is 
given as 10cm, it is per definitionem an approximation, because no natural 
thing has dimension 
10,00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 cm.

A fine example of measurement tolerances is the recent problem of determining 
the proton radius:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_radius_puzzle
See also:
http://pdg.lbl.gov/2012/reviews/rpp2012-rev-history-plots.pdf
https://www.quantamagazine.org/proton-radius-puzzle-deepens-with-new-measurement-20160811/

I think it is a question of guide lines how to interpret the absence of P10a,b.

Opinions?

Best,

Martin



On 10/15/2019 7:13 PM, Robert Sanderson wrote:

Dear all,

In recent history, we have added P189 approximates for the practically 
ubiquitous scenario where we have recorded the approximate “declarative” place 
of an event, but not the exact “phenomenal” place. P189 allows us to say that 
the event took place at the phenomenal place, which is then approximated by the 
declarative place.

Thus:
  Birth_of_Rob a E67_Birth ;
    p7_took_place_at [
        a E53_Place ;
        rdfs:label “The exact place Rob was born” ;
        p189i_approximated_by [
            a E53_Place ;
            rdfs:label “New Zealand” ;
            // …
        ]
    ]

This gives us two significant advantages:


  1.  We can have multiple declarative places associated with the single 
phenomenal place. This allows us to be clear that the event took place in one 
location, but we have multiple ways to describe that location in our 
information system.
  2.  If we can be precise (enough) about the phenomenal place (e.g. we have 
the GPS coordinates from the digital camera that took the photograph), then we 
do not have a different model … we can simply ascribe those coordinate values 
to the phenomenal place.

While the E53 Place scope notes do not talk about approximation, there is 
another class that does … the very next one, E54 Dimension.


An instance of E54 Dimension represents the true quantity, independent from its 
numerical

approximation, e.g. in inches or in cm.

However, there isn’t a property that allows us to use this same approximation 
pattern for Dimensions.

The same advantages would apply:

  1.  We can have multiple declarative dimensions (10 inches, 25 centimeters) 
that approximate the true dimension, rather than implying there are two 
different dimensions.
  2.  If we do not have this case, because the dimension is measured very 
accurately and has only a single numerical representation, then we can simply 
use a single Dimension.

This is also useful for conservation when the same dimension is measured to 
different degrees of accuracy with different instruments or techniques … there 
is only a single height (for example) but it is measured with a laser, or by 
estimation.

Thus I would like to propose the addition of a new property, 
Pxxx_approximates_dimension, that mirrors P189_approximates, that would be used 
to associate true dimensions with their approximations.

It would be used in exactly the same way as P189:

painting a Human-Made_Object ;
  has_dimension [
    a Dimension ;
    p2_has_type <aat:height> ;
    pxxxi_dimension_approximated_by [
        a Dimension ;
        p90_has_value 10 ;
        p91_has_unit <aat:inches>
    ]
  ]


Thank you for your consideration of this issue!  I’m happy to write up a draft 
scope note for discussion if the general issue is considered to be worthy of 
inclusion.

Rob





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--

------------------------------------

 Dr. Martin Doerr



 Honorary Head of the

 Center for Cultural Informatics



 Information Systems Laboratory

 Institute of Computer Science

 Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)



 N.Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton,

 GR70013 Heraklion,Crete,Greece



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--

------------------------------------

 Dr. Martin Doerr



 Honorary Head of the

 Center for Cultural Informatics



 Information Systems Laboratory

 Institute of Computer Science

 Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)



 N.Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton,

 GR70013 Heraklion,Crete,Greece



 Vox:+30(2810)391625

 Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

 Web-site: http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the Getty. Do not click links or 
open attachments unless you verify the sender and know the content is safe.


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