"As God calculates, so the world is made." - (Gottfried Leibniz, 1646-1716)

Math History Tidbit:

The Four-Color Problem: If you took a white map of the 48 continental States of the U.S. and colored the states so that no two bordering have the same color, you would need only four colors. In 1852, Frederick Gutherie speculated that four colors would be sufficient to color any map which had borders of finite length between its regions. (This would exclude a single point border). This problem perplexed mathematicians for over 100 years. They were convinced only four colors were needed, but no one could prove this. In 1976, Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken of the University of Illinois presented a computer-assisted proof that only four colors are needed.

Herkimer's Corner

What did Herkimer do when he wanted to smoke in a rowboat, but didn't have any matches?

Answer: He tossed a cigarette overboard to make the boat a cigarette lighter.

Herky wants to know:

Why is it that if a man charges nothing for his preaching, he's usually worth every penny of it?

Why is it that if someone says they will stop acting like a fool, they usually aren't acting?

 

ASSIGNMENT #66

Reading: CHAPTER REVIEW, pages 579-580.

Exercises:

(Page 580) 10.77, 10.78, 10.80, 10.81 (write these four up thoroughly).

10.83, 10.84, 10.85 (Make sure you get the point of these exercises. We'll discuss them.)

Items for reflection:

You are working with concepts and ideas fromChapter 10.

Key thought to remember: If a sample size is smalland your population does not represent a normal distribution, onemust be cautious with confidence intervals. For instance, an outlierin a sample can greatly influence confidence interval computations.As a general rule of thumb, if your sample size is 15 or greater,your calculations will produce reasonably accurate results unlessextreme outliers or strong skewness is present. The sectionSome cautions(pages 524-525) might be worth reviewing.

 

LINK TO SECTIONSUMMARIES

LINK TO STATISTICS HOMEPAGE

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Text:
The Practice of Statistics, by Yates, Moore, McCabe. New York,W.H. Freeman and Company, 1999. (;l 0-7167-3370-6)

Supplemental books:
The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, by Gonick and Smith. NewYork, HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. (ISBN 0-06-273102-5)
How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff. New York, W.W.Norton & Company, 1982 (ISBN 0-393-09426-X)

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