Deleting a standard acquisition line in Analyze--a bug or not?

[D.]

Dear John,

I'm using PFE for offline data processing. I assigned anorthite as an Al std. When I delete the 1st line of several anorthite standard acquisitions, the software appears to take that line's Al data + total and substitute it into the following (undeleted) line. So in effect it seems to be combining the 1st and 2nd line's data under the 2nd line's number. I attach a screen shot compilation to illustrate what I mean (if it doesn't attach, I'll try posting it separately). The image compares undeleted vs deleted instances.

When I delete the 2nd line but keep the 1st, this does not happen.

Is this a bug, or is there something I'm missing in how the software performs it's routines?

Thanks,
Deon.

[John Donovan]

Hi Deon,
Ok, I think I see your misunderstanding.  Remember the standards are "forced"  to be the standard database concentrations if they are assigned as the primary standard for that element. 

So if you delete a point from a standard, that will affect the value that the program iterates a standard to because the program uses the *average* of all the points of the standard sample for the standard intensity.  If you delete a point from the standard, the remaining points are re-averaged and utilized again. This doesn't occur for unknowns. 

Does that make sense?

[D.]

Yep. Thank you.