a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  4826 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Men use Reddit, women use Tumblr
The analogy should have been "if you roll two dice once, each is equally likely to be one through six. But if you roll two dice together, the more times you roll them the more likely they are to average around seven."

Rolling 1 die a bajillion times will not result in a peak around 3 or 4.

(plowing through The Drunkard's Walk; statistical errors are a pet peeve at the moment)





liquidm  ·  4826 days ago  ·  link  ·  
He actually said that the average would be between 3 or 4. It was strangely worded, but the average of a six sided die is 3.5.
kleinbl00  ·  4826 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Mathematical averages are NOT the same thing as statistical modes.

Statistics is NOT algebra.

Here there be math:

http://www.leidenuniv.nl/fsw/verduin/stathist/galileo.htm

thenewgreen  ·  4826 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Just read the description of The Drunkards Walk, it sounds intriguing. Enjoy and thanks for the correction.