Tagged Questions
4
votes
1answer
48 views
Applications of information geometry to the natural sciences
I am contemplating undergraduate thesis topics, and am searching for a topic that combines my favorite areas of analysis, differential geometry, graph theory, and probability, and that also has ...
4
votes
3answers
78 views
Statistics Workshop for High School Students
We are going to hold an introductory workshop about the statistics. The participants will be students who have just finished their 8th or 9th grade. The workshop consists of 10 two-hour sessions. The ...
0
votes
1answer
30 views
Field of mathematics which deals with similarity of a set of objects each with property variables
(Contextual word of warning: Question written by mathematical novice.)
I have a large set of objects. Each object has three variables. Each variable is a number between 0 and 1.
For each object in ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
Likely related elements
I have lists of pair like so :
KHLM1800, (a,b,c)
KHLM1900, (a,b,d)
KHLM1840, (a,b,c,d)
KHLM1845, (a,b,c)
TCMB9001, (a,c)
.
.
.
Naively it looks like KHLM ...
0
votes
0answers
18 views
What is the real-world intuition of a data set that exhibits a gamma distribution with shape>1?
From the special case of the exponential distribution (shape=1), we know that the interpretation of scale has to do with the rate of the success, but how can I interpret the shape? Does it mean that ...
3
votes
2answers
68 views
Intuition Of Conditional Probability Equation
I was wondering if any one of you had any intuitive insight regarding the conditional probability equation, $P(A\mid B) = \large \frac{P(A \cap B)}{P(B)}$. In my textbook, they give a mere definition, ...
1
vote
1answer
23 views
Box Plot Log Scaled?
When making box plots to represent data, is it logical to set our axis scale to logarithmic? Or does that defeat the whole point of a box plot?
1
vote
4answers
187 views
Math vs Probability vs Statistics
For a certain job interview, I gave myself a 6 in SQL and 8 in Statistics. I love math and probability but I always found significance testing and confidence intervals rather dry.
What is the ...
0
votes
0answers
74 views
Can a batsman's score be predicted in the sport of cricket?
I was browsing The Signal and the Noise in bookstore and chanced upon a chapter about predictions in baseball and found out about Moneyball and sabermetrics. I understand the closest to predicting a ...
-3
votes
1answer
189 views
In general, is it easier to solve problems that have random variables, or problems that are basically the same that don't [closed]
This question is asked because I don't understand how random variables will affect various math problems, and knowledgeable mathematicians would.
By easier, we mean less steps
If we make our own ...
0
votes
2answers
48 views
Averages and Team
I have a question:
Suppose $5$ players each score an average of $10$ points per game. Then collectively, do they score on average $50$ points per game?
So player 1 scores an average of 10 points ...
7
votes
3answers
146 views
How come in statistics there is very little justification for the formulas used and proofs are almost nonexistent [closed]
I don't understand why people accept certain formulas in statistics without a mathematical proof style argument. You see this a lot in statistics textbooks and unfortunately this spills over with the ...
0
votes
1answer
116 views
Name of probability distribution
Does this distribution have a name:
$f(x) = yx^{y-1}$ for $0 < x<1$ and $y>0$?
It looks like an exponential distribution. Or is it a nameless distribution?
5
votes
4answers
1k views
What is the purpose of the standard deviation?
I don't have any knowledge of statistics beyond high school common sense. Why is the standard deviation usually seen in combinatorics textbooks, and why is the standard deviation defined ...
3
votes
0answers
316 views
How did Target figure out a teen girl was pregnant before her father did?
First of all I do not have a mathematics degree only a B.S. in finance so please take that into account when writing an answer. Generally what type of mathematics is involved here? And specifically ...
1
vote
0answers
53 views
Sufficient statistics for Data Cleaning
If you want to do data cleaning (e.g. suppose you have 1000 data points), is finding sufficient statistics a good thing to do? Because this seems to reduce the extra noise of the data.
2
votes
3answers
84 views
z-interval and sample size what is a normal sample size
Can a Z-interval be used when the sample size is between 15-30? does the variable play a role?
I'm not too sure if it makes a difference.
I know it can be used if the population is a normal or large ...
2
votes
2answers
130 views
A theorem about inductive inference
In the book 'Introduction of the theory of Statistics' by Mood,Graybill,Boes (third edition)on page 220 (Chapter 6 on Sampling) you can read:
'Inductive inference is well known to be a hazardous ...
3
votes
1answer
302 views
Single number to represent a ratio?
There's probably a very simple answer to this, but I can't put my finger on it.
I have two numbers. I want one to be large, and the other to be small. I'd like to identify these with a single ...
7
votes
4answers
463 views
What is the deepest / most interesting known connection between Trigonometry and Statistics?
I'm teaching both at the same time to different classes in high school, so I just wondered about this.
Added by OP on 16.May.2011 (Beijing time)
I mean Statistics only, without Probability. In ...
1
vote
0answers
612 views
Calculate relative contribution to percent change
Let me use a simple example to illustrate my problem. First, assume we are calculating rate r at time t such that rt = xt / yt. Furthermore, each measure has two component parts: X = xa + xb and Y = ...
1
vote
1answer
186 views
Is the above statement true for maths?
In maths, you can use something as
simple as statistical analysis to
intuit the theory, and in comp-science
you can use simulators.
Is the above statement true for maths ?
9
votes
4answers
792 views
Why does Benford's Law (or Zipf's Law) hold?
Both Benford's Law (if you take a list of values, the distribution of the most significant digit is rougly proportional to the logarithm of the digit) and Zipf's Law (given a corpus of natural ...
18
votes
8answers
984 views
Real life usage of Benford's Law
I recently discovered Benford's Law. I find it very fascinating. I'm wondering what are some of the real life uses of Benford's law. Specific examples would be great.
