I’m certainly no math major. Or math student. Or math tutor. Sorry, Shelley.
A lot of people here seem to be respectably good at math, though. That’s probably you.
I can at least read, however, and once long ago I read a review of a book called “How To Lie With Statistics.”
It was a good summary. The book seemed like it would be jam-packed with numbers, so I didn’t buy it. But now I know that the three things in the title are all different, but the media will always — ALWAYS — pick the one that bolsters their case, and then disingenuously use the word “the average” in their article, purposely to confuse people.
I hate that as an English major!
And you should be offended at that even more than I am, if you’re a STEM major.
Oh, you probably already are offended, I just didn’t hear you because I was thinking things about Shelley.
.
Another one is percentages. I know they also play games with “an X percent increase” versus “X percent of” something, because math people recognize the difference, but non-math people go into a coma.
To us, “You’ll get a 110% increase from your investment” sounds exactly like “You’ll get 110% of your investment. 110%!”
That’s why NFL players and English majors go broke.
.
Thank God I went to a school that taught me there was a difference between “interest” and “compound interest,” or I would be broke.
I always liked it when they blare headlines that “Your risk of getting something has doubled!” when there was only a one in a million chance and now you have a one in 500,000 chance. Lotteries love people who think that way.
Now you just want to “Lie with Interns”, eh, Squire? Say no more…
I’ll bet they’d like a nice STEM, eh? Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge. Know what I mean? Say no more…know what I mean?
Interest is an IMAO post.
Compound interest is an IMAO post with intern pic.
For the math adverse:
∫ seᵡ dx = seᵡ + c
where c is that nagging, feminine constant of integration.
Next up: a QUIZ !
(You just couldn’t wait for the QUIZ, could ya?!)
QUIZ
Q: What does the equation above mean? (Extra credit: show your work.)
Woah! Eh? Wo-oah! Eh? Say no more!
That is INCORRECT!
The correct answer is….
What do you get when you add it all up? The usual, plus, NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG…!
Statistics explained:
1. Determine desired result.
2. Craft a methodology that will likely support the desired result.
3. Designate results that do not support the desired result “outliers”.
4. Throw out the outliers.
Just like when they reduce the “deficit” and everybody thinks they reduced the “debt”.
Or
They lowered the inflation rate, and people think, things will be more affordable now!
And
COVID was the number cause of death (if you also include every other cause of death as being caused by COVID).