2012 – Page 36 – William M. Briggs

Let’s Try This Time Series Thing Again: Part III

Part I, II, III, IV, V. The objection which will occur to those, Lord help them, who have had some statistical training is that "increased" means a combination of "linear…

Philosophy Statistics

Let’s Try This Time Series Thing Again: Part II

Part I, II, III, IV, V. Before us are the observations X1 to X156. Recall we are assuming that each of these X has been measured without any error. Given…

Statistics

Let’s Try This Time Series Thing Again: Part I

This series originally began 5 February 2012. Part I, II, III, IV, V. We've gone on and on about how to think about time series, but we are having trouble…

Philosophy Statistics

On Corrections In Science

Somebody attributed to Max Planck, a constant1 source of wisdom, the saying that science advances funeral by funeral. This is a pithy condensation of his more famous quotation: A new…

Culture Fun Statistics

Should Scientists Be Held Legally Responsible for Their Results?

That title is lifted from Popular Science's brief article. The idea is that scientists---as philosopher Christopher Essex reminded me, just like doctors and accountants and businessmen and engineers and everybody…

Statistics

On Global Warming Apoplexy: Temperature Trends

It is a sure sign that Sanity has packed her bags and headed for the door when otherwise sober scientists begin slinging around terms like "denier" and "denialist." Language like…

Fun Statistics

How To Maximize The Chance Of Winning The Office Super Bowl Pool

Forget climatology. It's time for something really controversial. How to fill in those grid squares on the Super Bowl office pool. An example of one is shown below. The full…

Statistics

Bad Astronomer Does Bad Statistics: That Wall Street Journal Editorial

Remember when I said how you shouldn't draw straight lines in time series and then speak of the line as if the line was the data itself? About how the…

Phil R on Test Your IQ With These Puzzles! (Not So Easy!)July 1, 2025
...and I saw 5 or 25 in the figure. The division answer never occurred to me. Got all the rest…
Phil R on Test Your IQ With These Puzzles! (Not So Easy!)July 1, 2025
If someone asks a question that is conditional on some evidence or rule that they conveniently (or purposely) leave out,…
McChuck on Test Your IQ With These Puzzles! (Not So Easy!)July 1, 2025
The answer for the pictured question is obviously '1', as the slot already has a '1' in it, which has…
Briggs on Test Your IQ With These Puzzles! (Not So Easy!)July 1, 2025
Mark, That's exactly it.
Mark on Test Your IQ With These Puzzles! (Not So Easy!)July 1, 2025
Wittgenstein gave some examples like this in his Remarks on the Foundation of Mathematics, a book I had no business…