"For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics." - (Roger Bacon, 1267)

 

Math History Tidbit:

John von Neumann (1903-1957): Born in Hungary, von Neumann proved a number of theorems relating to measure theory, quantum theory, and the theory of games while still in his twenties. He later taught at Princeton, where he contributed to the development of lattice theory, continuous groups, shock-wave theory, and computer technology. Mathematics suffered a great loss at his death as he had much unfinished research.

Herkimer's Corner

Why did Herkimer take a lion into the desert just before Christmas?

Answer: He wanted to see sandy claws.

Herky wants to know:

Would cannibals get angry if told their jokes aren't in good taste?

Does the phrase "cold cash" refer to money that doesn't stay in your pocket long enough to get warm?

ASSIGNMENT #76

Reading: Section 12.1, 669-671 and SUMMARY (page 674).

Exercises: 12.13, 12.14, 12.15, 12.16, 12.17 (page 675).

Items for reflection:

You are working with ideas and concepts fromSection 12.1.

I strongly suggest you look at the link to Section12.1 in the SECTION SUMMARIES and read the section that gives insightinto how one determines the sample size need in order to obtain aspecified margin of error. It will point out that if you want amargin of error of 2% for a 95% confidence interval, the sample sizeneeded is 1/(.02)2 = 2,500. (An incredibly easy calculation that is easilyjustified!)

A confidence interval for a proportion pcalculated from a sample statistics p(hat) has the form

p(hat) plus/minus (z*)sqrt[p(hat)(1-p(hat))/n]

 

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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