[R] Problem with density()?

[Nels Tomlinson]

Hello, all,

I'm running Version 1.1.0  (June 15, 2000), on Mandrake 6.1 Linux.  

I think that I'm getting nonsense results from the density function. 
When I feed it a sample generated by v<-runif(1000,0,1), I get back some
small negative numbers for density values, as follows:


>v<-runif(1000,0,1)
> dump("v","/home/tomlinso/auction/test.vector.R")
> slime<-density(v,kernel="r")
> sort(slime$y)
  [1] -1.869303e-16 -1.110223e-16 -1.110223e-16 -1.065198e-16
-1.057452e-16
  [6] -1.016304e-16 -9.779196e-17 -9.427232e-17 -9.368320e-17
-8.471147e-17
 [11] -8.169144e-17 -7.225386e-17 -6.740389e-17 -6.142515e-17
-6.003374e-17
 [16] -5.652376e-17 -5.501082e-17 -5.348798e-17 -5.347797e-17
-5.319815e-17
 [21] -5.043385e-17 -4.948219e-17 -4.835455e-17 -4.633728e-17
-4.466063e-17
 [26] -4.039872e-17 -3.836554e-17 -3.826879e-17 -3.646713e-17
-3.557390e-17
 [31] -2.825989e-17 -2.821749e-17 -2.743282e-17 -2.678935e-17
-2.533472e-17
 [36] -2.518910e-17 -2.510075e-17 -2.436936e-17 -1.919740e-17
-1.831052e-17
 [41] -1.757412e-17 -1.673804e-17 -1.615867e-17 -1.327275e-17
-1.318810e-17
 [46] -1.286342e-17 -9.888095e-18 -8.665413e-18 -6.783308e-18
-5.726469e-18
 [51] -2.394122e-19  7.552237e-18  1.063422e-17  2.765485e-17 
3.848034e-17
 [56]  4.637632e-17  4.727742e-17  6.705682e-17  6.914125e-17 
8.924077e-17
 [61]  6.663715e-04  1.703646e-03  3.401654e-03  8.696669e-03 
1.349002e-02
 [66]  1.861714e-02  2.548490e-02  2.719238e-02  3.502090e-02 
3.752716e-02
<snip>

I don't think that I should be getting negative numbers, even tiny
ones.  These are close enough to zero to cause trouble, since the
estimator I'm implementing calls for dividing by those density values!  

Any clues about what hit me and what I can do about it would be
appreciated.  

Thanks,
Nels Tomlinson
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