Transcript Document

Michael Shadbolt
Otumoetai College
[email protected]
Introduction
Otumoetai College, State Co-ed in Tauranga.
2000 students. 2IC Math Dept. 8 years teaching.
L3 Statistics for most of that.
Standards realignment, full L2 Statistics course (no
standards in common with our L2 Math course.)
As a result, we now have five L3 Statistics classes, without
taking numbers away from the three L3 Calculus classes.
Q1. Why can incorrect Bivariate
analysis kill puppies?
Puppy Lives? You Decide!
It’s not always obvious which variable is the response and which is
the explanatory. Sometimes we need to think about which one
makes more sense as an explanatory.
Eg: Heart weights of puppies vs body weights of puppies.
Do we want to be able to
predict a puppy’s body weight
by cutting out its heart and
weighing it?
Or do we want to be able to
predict a puppy’s heart weight
by weighing the whole
puppy?
In this case, perhaps it would
be better if heart weight was
response and body weight
was explanatory…
I ruff you!
Q2. Why is freeze-dried ice-cream
better than cornflakes?
Continuity Correction
Question: The weight of boxes of “Kellogg’s Kream Krunch”
are normally distributed with a mean of 760g and a standard
deviation of 5g. If the weight of the boxes is recorded to the
nearest gram, find the probability that a box of “Kream
Krunch” is recorded as at least 750g.
Answer: If the box is to be recorded
as at least 750g, the actual box
must exceed 749.5g
Thus P(X ≥ 750)
= P(X > 749.5)(continuity correction)
= 0.98213
(note: without continuity correction,
the answer would have been
0.97724)
Q3. Why is goody-gumdrop
ice-cream "poissonous"?
You Scream, I Scream…
•
•
•
You will be given a scoop of
gumdrop ice cream.
Eat it and count the number of
pieces of gumdrop you get.
The random variable X will be
the number of pieces of
gumdrop per scoop of ice
cream.
Q4. Why is Yoda a fan of
Venn Diagrams?
P(Try′) = 1
P(Do) = 0.7
P(Do′) = 0.3
 P(Try) = Ø
0.3
P(Do)
0.7
P(Try)
?
Q5. Am I going to die from
a meteor strike?
Meteor To Hit Earth!
A meteor is going to hit Earth! We want to
know the probability that it hits land, as
opposed to landing in the ocean.
• Why would we simulate this? (Why not do
an actual experiment?)
• What tool could we use to simulate this?
• What assumptions are we making?
• How will we calculate the probability that a
meteor would land on… well, land?
Q6. Am I going to die from
a lightning strike?
Fire Island Assessment
Sample of simulation outcomes (km2 lost)
Q7. Am I going to die from
falling asleep?
Results from wearing a heart-rate monitor overnight. X-axis is time
(seconds) after going to bed. Y-axis is heart rate in beats per minute.
Describe the overall trend.
What would happen to Tim (the person monitored) if he kept sleeping?
Make an approximate forecast for Tim’s heart-rate after 24hrs asleep.
Source: xkcd.com
Q8. Is Frane Selak the unluckiest
man to ever live?
Q9. Are polar bears really stealing
our money?
Area Bias Example:
Polar Bear Population
• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has
written on the threats posed to polar
bears by global warming
• However, also according to them,
about 20 distinct polar bear
populations exist accounting for
approximately 22,000 polar bears
worldwide.
•
•
•
•
Only 2 of the groups are decreasing
10 populations are stable
2 populations are increasing
The status of the remaining 6 populations
is unknown
• If you are only looking at the 2 groups
that are decreasing, it would be easy to
say that the “Polar Bear Population is
Decreasing”. You need to look at the
whole picture to get the whole story