"A small error in the beginning is a great one at the end." -- (St. Thomas Aquinas)

Math History Tidbit:

Decline of Mathematical Knowledge (300 - 500): Thousands of Greek books were burned by Romans and Christians, who saw the Greek works as having their foundation in paganism. In 640 came the conquest of Egypt by the Moslems. Omar, the Arab conqueror, believed that Greek literature conflicted with the teaching of the Koran. More Greek works were destroyed.

Herkimer's Corner


Why did Herkimer put a burning candle on top of a wheelbarrow full of bricks?

Answer: He wanted to lighten the load.

Things Herky would like to know:
If Americans throw rice at weddings, why don't Orientals throw hamburgers?

Since light travels faster than sound, is that why some people appear bright until you hear them speak?

Reading: Review previous reading assignments, as necessary.

Exercises: 2.26, 2.28 - 2.32

 

Items for reflection:

It is important to realize that you canstandardize any set of numerical scores. Such a set will have a meanand a standard deviation, so you can calculate a z-value for eachscore by subtracting the mean, and then dividing by the standarddeviation. This can be useful, since the z-scores represent thenumber of standard deviations to the left or right of the mean.However, just standardizing a set of scores does not produce a normaldistribution of z-scores. If your initial scores are normal, then thestandardized scores will also be normally distributed. However, ifyour initial scores are not normal,then the standardized scores willnot be normally distributed. A common error involves thinking thatstandardizing scores automatically produces a normal distribution.Don't make this very careless mistake.

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. (ISBN 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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