"Mathematicians are like lovers...Grant a mathematician the least principle, and he will draw from it a consequence which you must also grant him, and from this consequence another." - (Fontenelle, 1657-1757)   Zero: The number we call 0 has a long and fascinating history. While the concept of 0 was used by the Chinese in the fourth century B.C., it did not surface in the Western world until the 1200's. Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci (1180-1250) advocated strongly for the use of Hindu-Arabic numerals (which included 0) in Western Europe. For a variety of reasons, the West resisted the use of the efficient Hindu-Arabic numerals. As late as 1298, the City Council of Florence (Italy) outlawed any system but Roman numerals. (How would you like to do operations like multiplication and division with Roman numerals?) I guarantee you that research on the number 0 will yield some extremely interesting historical information.

Why did Herkimer insist on placing lamps with his autograph collection that was stored in his attic? Answer: He wanted to have his lights up in names. Herky wants to know: If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled? If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen are defrocked, can electricians be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?

ASSIGNMENT #70 Reading: Section 11.1, pages 598-602 (up to TI-83 techniques) Exercises: 11.13 (page 604). Enter data into calculator or spreadsheet, get necessary statistics, and respond to (a), (b), and (c). Check the "shape" of the differences. (See rules for t-test below).

You are working in section 11.1.

Rules for using the t-test:

• The assumption of an SRS is important.
• Ideally, the sample comes from a normal population. However, many interesting populations are not normal. Here are situations when the t-test can be used when a sample is taking from a population that might not be normal.
  For sample sizes less than 15, the t-test can be used if the data are close to normal. Do not use t-procedures if the data are clearly nonnormal or if outliers are present.

  For sample sizes 15 or greater, t-procedures can be safely used except in the presence of outliers or strong skewness.

  For samples sizes 40 or greater, t-procedures can be used even if the data is heavily skewed.

LINK TO SECTIONSUMMARIES

LINK TO STATISTICS HOMEPAGE

=======================================

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)

Back to the top of this page