Archive for the 'statistics' Category

The temblor forecast

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

From the Associated Press, via the New York Times:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said in the first statewide temblor forecast.
New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 […]

Posted in science, statistics | 9 Comments »

Measure twice, average once

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Whenever Norm Abram tells me to “measure twice, cut once,” I wonder what I’m supposed to do if the two measurements disagree. Perhaps I should measure a third time, in hope of settling the question by majority rule; but then I might well wind up with three discrepant values.
Strolling by a construction site the […]

Posted in mathematics, statistics | No Comments »