The subject of statistics is rife with misleading terms. I have written about this before in such posts as Teaching Statistical Language and It is so random. But the terms sampling error and non-sampling error win the Dr Nic prize for … Continue reading →
The concept of “random” is a tough one. First there is the problem of lexical ambiguity. There are colloquial meanings for random that don’t totally tie in with the technical or domain-specific meanings for random. Then there is the fact … Continue reading →
Some more help (preaching?) for students of statistics Last week I outlined the first five principles to help people to learn and study statistics. They focussed on how you need to practise in order to be good at statistics and … Continue reading →
Teaching how to write statistical reports It is difficult to write statistical reports and it is difficult to teach how to write statistical reports. When statistics is taught in the traditional way, with emphasis on the underlying mathematics the process … Continue reading →
The median suffers from poor marketing. All my time at school the “average” was always calculated as the arithmetic mean, by adding up all the scores and then dividing by the number of scores. When we were taught about the … Continue reading →
All areas of human endeavour have specific language. Cricket commentators, art critics and wines buff make this very obvious. Mixolydian My son, who is blind, autistic and plays the piano like an angel, is studying Jazz, and I’m helping him. … Continue reading →
I received a phone call from the company that leases us our equipment. I got quite excited when the salesman told me they would waive the purchase price of a new iPad. Then I decided it was time to clarify … Continue reading →
