"Fate laughs at probabilities." - (Lytton Bulwer)
COUNTING AND COMPUTING DEVICES:
Abacus: Dating back perhaps 5,000 years, this device involving rods and beads was used by the Chinese, Greeks, and Romans. It is still used in some parts of the world today.
Napier's bones: Invented by John Napier (Scotland, 1550-1617), this simple device consisted of a series of rods containing the digits 1 to 9. Rotating the rods facilitated multiplication.
Slide rule: Napier's discovery of logarithms led to the invention of this device by William Oughtred (1574-1660). It is really just a compact set of logarithm tables, and it was widely used well into the twentieth century.
Where did Herkimer leave his pet pigs while he took a stroll in a big city?
Answer: In a porking lot.
Herky wants to know:
Why should there be chicken in chicken soup when there is no horse in horseradish?
If you believe in the motto "the customer is always right," what do you do when a customer insists he was wrong?
ASSIGNMENT #65
Reading: Section 10.4, pages 567-572, 574-577, including SUMMARY on page 577.
Also: Read the handout Errors (Type I and Type II) and the concept of Power.
Exercises: None, except work through the computations that are described in the handout.
