Let's assume we have drawn n=10000
samples of the standard normal distribution.
Now I want to calculate its entropy using histograms to calculate the probabilities.
1) calculate probabilities (for example using matlab)
[p,x] = hist(samples,binnumbers);
area = (x(2)-x(1))*sum(p);
p = p/area;
(binnumbers is determined due to some rule)
2) estimate entropy
H = -sum(p.*log2(p))
which gives 58.6488
Now when i use the direct formula to calculate the entropy of normal data
H = 0.5*log2(2*pi*exp(1)) = 2.0471
What do i do wrong when using the histograms + entropy formula? Thank you very much for any help!!