Experiments

  • The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment.

    Celia Green (1935 - )

  • The statistician who supposes that his main contribution to the planning of an experiment will involve statistical theory, finds repeatedly that he makes his most valuable contribution simply by persuading the investigator to explain why he wishes to do the experiment, by persuading him to justify the experimental treatments, and to explain why it is that the experiment, when completed, will assist him in his research.

    Gertrude Cox (1900 - 1978)

  • Care must be taken in planning experiments so that the differences to be examined for significance should be those which furnish an answer to the question which we are asking.

    William Sealy Gosset (1876 - 1937)

  • My life is an experiment I never had a chance to properly design.

    Diana Ballard

  • I am addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter.

    Steven Wright (1955 - )

  • A theory can be proved by an experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory.

    Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

  • In God we trust, all others bring data.

    William Edwards Deming (1900-1993)
    (Attribution to Deming is ironically not supported by data)

  • By: Laura Krajewski

    May sing to the tune of "I Love You Will Still Sound the Same" by Oh Honey

     

    Verse 1
    Here's a question for you which you must
    test: Which leads to greater success?
    A student who eats well every day,
    Or one whose diet's gone astray?

    Chorus
    When we plan out our experiment,
    We must be sure to add
    A control, replication, randomization,
    And maybe even blocking ain't bad.

    Verse 2
    Ok let's see...who shall we test?
    University students are best.
    Both boys and girls from every year,
    To make sure randomness is clear.

    But boys and girls may react differently,
    Maybe we should group them separately.
    This will let us further randomize the test,
    Thus by blocking we aim for the best.

    Chorus

    Verse 3
    So we've got a random group of them,
    Our roots are set now what's our first stem?
    We must ruin the diets of a few,
    Perhaps just feed them Mountain Dew.

    Now some we'll feed well every day,
    Their diets cannot go astray!
    And for our control some folks stay untouched,
    To see if they have any luck.

    Chorus

    Verse 4
    What about blinding? Can we use it now?
    Can we keep our treatments hidden somehow?
    In this case no, I think they'd know,
    But thanks for the suggestion though!

    So we've got three groups, what do we think we'll see?
    Who will win academically?
    Let's hypothesize it's those who are fed well,
    All the others will not excel.

    Chorus

    Verse 5
    If we run this once will that be good?
    Can our results then be fully understood?
    Not so fast! We must once again replicate,
    Perhaps try again in another state.

    Now let's run the test, that's all there's left to do.
    But even then our results aren't always true.
    Maybe diet isn't the cause of what we find,
    We must keep both types of error in mind.

    So remember:

    A control, replication, randomization,
    And maybe even blocking ain't bad.

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