Estimation

  • music and lyric by Cynthia Rudin

    When I look around, I'd find you there in space, and I see that you are like me...
    and the future is ours, the oyster, our world, where things far-away just don't matter.

    ‘Cause I can count on you, ‘cause you know me too well, you just sit right there by my side.
    In a metric space, we can find our place...
    for each other we truly decide.

    My nearest neighbors
    My k nearest neighbors

    If I were missing a part, you would extend your heart, so that I could be whole once again.
    And when clustering, I'd do anything so that I would be with you, my friends.

    My nearest neighbors
    my k nearest neighbors

    And all the k of you, with k more than two, together we work as a team.
    Case-based reasoning, can do anything, perform as you'd fathom to dream.

    My nearest neighbors
    my k nearest neighbors

  • lyric copyright by Lawrence M Lesser and Dennis K Pearl
    (based on Donald Byrd's idea to use the mid-20th century folk song in Mathematics Education)

    100 bottles of beer on the wall,
    plus or minus one beer:
    If one of those bottles should happen to fall,
    the M.O.E. won't cover them all!

    99 bottles of beer on the wall,
    plus or minus one beer:
    If one of those bottles should happen to fall,
    the M.O.E. won't cover them all!

    etc...

  • Video explaining the statistical concept of sampling error  and standard error through dance.

    (Teaching notes available to instructors logged into CAUSEweb)

  • by J.V. Cunningham (1911 - 1985)

    Plato, despair!
    We prove by norms
    How numbers bear
    Empiric forms,

    How random wrong
    Will average right
    If time be long
    And errors slight;

    But in our hearts
    Hyperbole
    Curves and departs
    To infinity.

    Error is boundless.
    Nor hope nor doubt,
    Though both be groundless,
    Will average out.

  • Students use the capture-recapture method to estimate the size of a population of GoldfishTM crackers. The bias in the MLE versus a bias-corrected estimate is evaluated with computer simulations.

  • Students estimate the probability that a Hershey's KissTM will land on its flat base when spilled from a cup.  Almond and plain Kisses are compared.

  • Students use the capture-recapture method to estimate the size of a large population of split peas. Student worksheets and expository materials are included.

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