What is this scaling operation called?

Question

We have values representing measurements stored inside a grid and they range between [0,1]. These measurements are degraded using following formula

$$\text{measurement} = \text{measurement} / (1 + \text{degradation factor}) $$

Degradation factor is usually between $(0,1)$

What is this operation called ? And does it have any significance?

it's the same as multiplying by a number between 0.5 and 1, so maybe just scaling by that? — ZirconCode, Jan 11 '17 at 16:24
@ZirconCode Yes it is doing some scaling as you said. But not sure whether it has any significance. — Sirish Kumar Bethala, Jan 11 '17 at 16:31
I think it has none other than making the scale fit better with other data. — ZirconCode, Jan 11 '17 at 16:33

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 11 '17 at 16:30

We have

$M = \frac{M}{1+d} = M \frac{1}{1+d}$

and $d \in (0,1) \implies 1+d \in (1,2) \implies \frac{1}{1+d} \in (0.5,1)$

thus we are simply scaling, "stretching", "squishing" by a little bit, probably to make it fit with other data. The scale is simply changed a little. Everything but the magnitude is left intact, even the proportion of one point to another remains. I think scaling is correct, or down-scaling since it can only remain the same or get smaller.

What is this scaling operation called?

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