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This applet was designed to illustrate the impact on simple linear regression output caused by adding a new data point. The applet simulates data and provides a graphical display of the data points and fitted regression line as well as the updated regression line after the addition of a data point.

The individual source of the statistics may easily be the weakest link. Harold Cox tells a story of his life as a young man in India. He quoted some statistics to a Judge, an Englishman, and a very good fellow. His friend said, Cox, when you are a bit older, you will not quote Indian statistics with that assurance. The Government are very keen on amassing statistics ... they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is that every one of these figures comes in the first place from the `chowty dar` [village watchman], who just puts down what he damn pleases." Quoted from "Some Economic Factors in Modern Life" (King and Son, 1929; p. 258) by Sir Josiah Charles Stamp (1880 - 1941), British economist, statistician, director of the Bank of England and president of the Royal Statistical Society.

Life is a school of probability. A quote attributed to English journalist and longtime editor of "The Economist" newspaper, Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877). The quote is found in "The World of Mathematics", J.R. Newman (ed.); Simon and Schuster, 1956 p. 1360.

A knowledge of statistics is like a knowledge of foreign languages or of algebra; it may prove of use at any time under any circumstances. Quote from "Elements of Statistics" by English statistician, economist and early proponent of using statistics in the social sciences, Sir Arthur Lyon Bowley (1869 - 1957).

Luck is probability taken personally. It is the excitement of bad math. A quote of comedian and illusionist Penn F. Jillette (1955 - )

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages. A quote of soldier and U.S. cartoonist William H. Mauldin (1921 - 2003) from a cartoon caption in the first published collection of his work, "Up Front" (H. Holt and Co., 1945)

One sees in this essay that the theory of probabilities is basically only common sense reduced to a calculus. This quote of French astronomer and mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749 - 1827) may be found in "A philosophical Essay on Probabilities" (Springer, 1995) p. 124 English translation of "Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilites (1814)"

While nothing is more uncertain than the duration of a single life, nothing is more certain than the average duration of a thousand lives. A quote of American actuary and abolitionist Elizur Wright (1804 - 1885).

The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the questions. A quote of applied probabilist Samuel Karlin (1924 - 2007) from his Fisher memorial lecture April, 1983. The quote is found in "Statistically Speaking: a Dictionary of Quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young. A quote of Austrian animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz (1903 - 1989) in "On Aggression", (English translation: 1966, Harvest books) p. 12. Quote also found in "Statistically Speaking - a Dictionary of Quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither p. 119.