Sandman
In article <n767l91vt02lvuvsg6a6ngcfl8ksmg5pg2@4ax.com>, Eric Stevens wrote:

Tony Cooper
All statistics start with one data point.

Sandman
And no statistics consist of one data point.

Eric Stevens
You are bluffing. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_point

"In statistics, a data point or observation is a set of one or more measurements on a single member of a statistical population."

Single data points are as much a part of statistics as is a cloud of data points.

Sandman
See how you had to make it plural to make the sentence work?

"A single data point is as much part of statistics as is a cloud of data points"

Just doesn't work.

Eric Stevens
Please explain why.

Sandman
Because "a single data point" isn't statistics. You have to have more than one data point for it to be statistics, and then one single data point of those many data points become important.

I have four doors in my office. That's not statistics. If I were to compare it to the number of doors in other offices, I would have more data points and voila - statistics.

statistic noun a fact or piece of data from a study of a large quantity of numerical data

statistics pl.noun [ treated as sing. ] the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, esp. for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample.

Incorrect. As long as you have one datapoint, the data is worthless, statistically.

Eric Stevens
(a) not necessarily and (b) even if the data is worthless it does not make it any less a part of statistics.

Sandman
Incorrect.

Eric Stevens
Simple denial without explanation. I don't think you know much about statistics.

Sandman
Ironic. As I've said before, I reply with "Incorrect" when you repeat an incorrect statement to which I have already given an explanation before.