摘要:This article determines the effect of rounding (pointing-off) of grade percentages
to the nearest whole number on the probability distribution of regrading in the
peanut industry. Results show that rounding causes graders to have to regrade an
extra 4% of samples even when they follow all directions and make no mistakes.
When rounding was not used, the sample weight had little effect on the probability
of regrading. With rounding, the probability of regrading was reduced by beginning
with a larger than 500-gram sample. Thus, rounding provides an incentive to take
overweight samples in order to avoid regrading. Overweight samples can overestimate
the value of peanuts. A low-cost way to improve peanut grading accuracy
would be to round to tenths rather than whole numbers.