A cartoon to teach about the interpretation of confidence statements. The cartoon plays on the idea of what would happen if the same process was repeated over-and-over again. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.
A cartoon to teach the idea that patterns will appear in data if you observe enough data at random. The cartoon plays on the famous "million monkeys typing Shakespeare" problem. Extensions of that problem have many applications. For example, allowing for random letters to be randomly changed and then fixed when they agree with the desired text have applications to modeling molecular evolution. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.
Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one, a quote by French Philosopher Francois-Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), more commonly known by his pen name Voltaire. The quote appeared in a letter to Frederick II of Prussia in 1767.
Statistics are the heart of democracy. A quote by American editorial page essayist Simeon Strunsky (1879 - 1948). The quote appeared in Strunsky's "New York Times" "Topics of the Times" article on November 30, 1944. Quote also found in "Statistically Speaking - a Dictionary of Quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither p. 119.
The primary themes of this parody involve elementary probability and the importance of graphical summaries. It may be sung to the tune of "Big Yellow Taxi" by Canadian songwriter Joni Mitchell, 1970. Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.
Probability is a 2 minute 14 second video that can be used in discussing the probability of rare events (e.g. how many consecutive times must a coin land heads before you question whether it is a fair coin?). The video was written, shot, and edited by Sam Rapien in 2007. The music is by Brett Musil and Sam Rapien and the single cast member is Jon Anderson. Mr. Rapien made this video while a graduate student in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
The Normal Law is a poem whose words form the shape of the normal density. It was written by Australian-American chemist and statistician William John ("Jack") Youden (1900 - 1971). The poem was published in "The American Statistician" page 11 in v. 4 number 2 (1950).
It is better to be satisfied with probabilities than to demand impossibilities and starve. A quote attributed to German philosopher, poet, and dramatist Friedrich Schiller (1759 - 1805). The quote may also be found in "The New Book of Unusual Quotations" by Rudolf Flesch (Harper & Row, 1966)
There is no alchemy of probabilities that will change ignorance into knowledge. A quote by American psychologist Edwin G. Boring found in "The logic of the Normal Law of error in mental measurement" published in "The American Journal of Psychology" page 1, volume 31, 1920.
Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. is a quote by George Boole (1815 - 1864) - the English logician and philosopher for whom Boolean logic is named. The quote is found in chapter 16 of his 1853 book "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought". The book can be found on-line through the Gutenberg project at www.gutenberg.org/etext/15114.