Contents - Index

Age Matrix


An age matrix is a parameter matrix where the parameters are age-specific.  An animal is assumed to age by one increment for each occasion.  For example, the following matrix has 5 age classes:

1  2  3  4  5
    1  2  3  4
       1  2  3
          1  2
             1

In the above matrix, parameter 1 represents only animals of age 1, parameter 2 only represents animals of age 2, and so forth.  Animals of age 5 only occur in the upper right corner of the matrix.  To initialize a parameter matrix to an age matrix, set the upper left value in the edit box to the first parameter, and click on the Initial Age menu selection.  This first value will be used to set the remainder of the matrix.  Thus, in the above matrix, a 1 in the upper left edit box results in the matrix shown.  The Maximum Age is requested to determine how many age classes should be used.  In the above example, 5 age classes were used.  In the following example, only 3 age classes are used.

1  2  3  3  3
    1  2  3  3
       1  2  3
          1  2
             1



See Constant Matrix for how parameters are specified to be constant for each occasion and age, Time Parameter Matrices for parameters that are specific to each occasion, Time and Age Matrix for an example where parameters are both time and age specific, and All Different Matrix for parameters that all have different values.

The quickest way to create an age matrix is to right-click the block of parameters on the PIM Chart.