Tony Cooper
On 20 Apr 2014 12:08:55 GMT, Sandman <mr@sandman.net>wrote:

Eric Stevens

You haven't studied statistics or probability have you?

That one body part had a headache at the time of your one visit does not mean that it always has has a headache (or 'malfunctioning' as you describe it).

Sandman
That's *EXACTLY* my point, Eric! The data is worthless as statistics.

Eric Stevens
Rubbish.

Sandman
Tony found one anomaly when checking 24 items one time, and treated it as statistics - you just agreed with me that it doesn't mean anything since it says nothing about the state of anomalies in a statistical manner.

Tony Cooper
An "anomaly"? Where do you get that? An anomaly is something that is unusual or unexpected. One non-working camera out of 24 cameras on display would not be considered to be something unusual or unexpected in a Best Buy. In fact, nospam is vigorously arguing that non-functional display models *would be* expected.

If there is an anomaly, it is that *only* one out of 24 were non-working.

I did not treat it as a statistic, by the way. I treated it as a report of what was observed. Because I do understand the meaning of "statistic", I wouldn't offer the observation as a statistic.

To turn the tables on you, please cite where I said that the observation was a statistic. Or, even "treated" it (whatever that means) as a statistic.