Now on ScienceBlogs: And so, driven on ceaselessly toward new shores
Finding the fun in good math; Shredding bad math and squashing the crackpots who espouse it.
Mark Chu-Carroll (aka MarkCC) is a PhD Computer Scientist, who works for Google as a Software Engineer. My professional interests center on programming languages and tools, and how to improve the languages and tools that are used for building complex software systems.
Category: statistics
I recently got an offer from someone at No-Starch Press to review the newly translated book, The Manga Guide to Statistics. I recieved the book a couple of weeks ago, but haven't had time to sit down and read...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 6:11 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: statistics
Before I get to the meat of the post, I want to remind you that our DonorsChoose drive is ending in just a couple of days! A small number of readers have made extremely generous contributions, which is very...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 9:26 PM • 17 Comments •
Category: statistics
I'd like to start with a quick apology. Sorry that both the abstract algebra and the new game theory posts have been moving so slowly. I've been a bit overwhelmed lately with things that need doing right away, and...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 1:19 PM • 13 Comments •
Category: statistics
The first key concept in probability is called a random variable. Random variables are a key concept - but since they're a key concept of the frequentist school, they are alas, one of the things that bring out more...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 11:49 AM • 35 Comments •
Category: statistics
To understand a lot of statistical ideas, you need to know about probability. The two fields are inextricably entwined: sampled statistics works because of probabilistic properties of populations. I approach writing about probability with no small amount of trepidation....
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 11:09 AM • 84 Comments •
Category: statistics
Suppose you've got a bunch of data. You believe that there's a linear relationship between two of the values in that data, and you want to find out whether that relationship really exists, and if so, what the properties...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 2:19 PM • 34 Comments •
Category: statistics
Several people have asked me to write a few basic posts on statistics. I've written a few basic posts on the subject - like, for example, this post on mean, median and mode. But I've never really started from...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 3:43 PM • 48 Comments •
Category: bad math
Yet another reader sent me a great bad math link. (Keep 'em coming guys!) This one is an astonishingly nasty slight of hand, and a great example of how people misuse statistics to support a political agenda. It's by someone...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 5:03 PM • 39 Comments •
Category: Basics
When we look at a the data for a population+ often the first thing we do is look at the mean. But even if we know that the distribution is perfectly normal, the mean isn't enough to tell us...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 1:58 PM • 32 Comments •
Category: Basics
In general, when we gather data, we expect to see a particular pattern to the data, called a normal distribution. A normal distribution is one where the data is evenly distributed around the mean in a very regular way,...
Posted by Mark C. Chu-Carroll at 8:46 PM • 16 Comments •
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