Friday, October 19, 2012

why the media's "Statistical Dead Heat" is misleading

Read the following article by

Dr. Douglas A. Lonnstrom
 
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Af4GwxzN1tlgJ%3Awww.stat.auckland.ac.nz%2F%7Eiase%2Fpublications%2F4%2F292.pdf+who+wins+statistical+dead+heats&hl=en&gl=us
 
We will be getting into this concept soon in class, but it is so applicable now that you really need to read it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute, so if they're close enough, then the newspapers report it as a dead heat!
Very confusing. I must read it again.

Andrea

Anonymous said...

Recognied statistical test? 2% possibility that B is ahead, not A?

Did I miss something when I wasn't paying attention Monday?

Andrea

Anonymous said...

You should pay attention in class

J Schmitt said...

As I said, we shall delve into the tests and confidence intervals soon. Basically, with enough people in a well designed poll, we can be sure that 95% of the samples will gives us essentially the same result.

Anonymous said...

Right, thanks, anonymous. Please write your name down so I know who is being so flippant. (Hmmph... trying to hide your identity. I see how this works.)
Okay, I'll try to forget about all those confusing details until we learn about them in the class.

Andrea