<p>This question is a distillation of my question here: <a href="https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/52119/how-do-i-calculate-the-information-content-of-a-mass-spectrum">How do I calculate the information content of a mass spectrum?</a></p>
<p>Using a theoretical instrument that makes perfect measurements of fundamental physico-chemical properties, is the amount of information obtained absolute?</p>
<p>My question related to mass spectrometry but, if it broadens the appeal of the question, you can extrapolate to sequencing.</p>
<p>If it helps, a simpler example would be a coin toss. The outcome is an absolute binary. This might actually help me answer my own question, because extremely unlikely outcomes, such as the coin landing on its edge, getting eaten by a passing seagull, turning into a small bowl of petunias, etc. must still exist on the probabbility distribution.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-06T20:19:12.973Z
I don't see the sense of the question: Shannon entropy is based on a distribution which is an idealisation of reality, ie an abstract model to study reality. The distribution of an fair coin is the uniform one. The only person I know off who did more extensive tests related to "real coun tosses" recently is persi diaconis so possibly his results will help. But taken at face value I don't see the sense of your question regarding "absolute value". Shannon's entropy is "absolute" in relation to the distribution model adopted for biased or unbiased (fair) events.
ExpressionCoder
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-13T09:03:18.680Z
If you are correct then you've answered my question. Thank you.
Ninja Chris
<it.information-theory><bioinformatics>
Can information, eg. Shannon Entropy, be considered an absolute value?
Ninja Chris
# Can information, eg. Shannon Entropy, be considered an absolute value?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-04)

This question is a distillation of my question here: [How do I calculate the information content of a mass spectrum?](https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/52119/how-do-i-calculate-the-information-content-of-a-mass-spectrum)

Using a theoretical instrument that makes perfect measurements of fundamental physico-chemical properties, is the amount of information obtained absolute?

My question related to mass spectrometry but, if it broadens the appeal of the question, you can extrapolate to sequencing.

If it helps, a simpler example would be a coin toss. The outcome is an absolute binary. This might actually help me answer my own question, because extremely unlikely outcomes, such as the coin landing on its edge, getting eaten by a passing seagull, turning into a small bowl of petunias, etc. must still exist on the probabbility distribution.

**Tags:** it.information-theory, bioinformatics
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I don't see the sense of the question: Shannon entropy is based on a distribution which is an idealisation of reality, ie an abstract model to study reality. The distribution of an fair coin is the uniform one. The only person I know off who did more extensive tests related to "real coun tosses" recently is persi diaconis so possibly his results will help. But taken at face value I don't see the sense of your question regarding "absolute value". Shannon's entropy is "absolute" in relation to the distribution model adopted for biased or unbiased (fair) events.  
> **username_0**: If you are correct then you've answered my question. Thank you.  

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