[Informatics] SAT Hypothesis: spurious correlations

[ATKINSON-BUCK, Damien]

Great find Mark- I used to blame aliens for the lost time in my day, now I can attribute it to looking up random correlations. Like this one.
[cid:image001.png at 01D18111.F71969C0]

So the conclusion from this data set is that just under one-third of people who die from tripping over their feet, do so by tripping over their feet into natural water…. And that clowns should avoid water

Damien Atkinson-Buck
Head of Learning Area: Technology/Arts
<http://>

[http://www.ivanhoe.com.au]<http://www.ivanhoe.com.au/>

The Ridgeway, Ivanhoe VIC 3079 Australia

p. +61 3 9490 3848

e. damien.atkinson-buck at ivanhoe.com.au

w. www.ivanhoe.com.au<http://www.ivanhoe.com.au>

[cid:image004.png at 01D18111.F71969C0]<http://www.facebook.com/IvanhoeGrammarSchool> [cid:image005.png at 01D18111.F71969C0] <http://twitter.com/ivanhoegrammar>



From: Mark [mailto:mark at vceit.com]
Sent: Friday, 18 March 2016 11:29 AM
To: Year 12 VCE Informatics Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Informatics] SAT Hypothesis: spurious correlations

Hi, pattern-finders

While teaching your angel-faced cherubs about hypotheses, and the fact that correlation does not mean causality (at least I hope you're going to teach them that) you might want to aim them at http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations.

This site has many (55,837 to be precise) amusing and salutary (American) examples of the danger of carelessly attributing causation without evidence such as:

- the number of people drowned by falling into a pool correlates with the number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in.  (Actually, this one makes sense to me)

- per capita cheese consumption correlates with the number of people dying by becoming entangled in their bedsheets. (I didn't know that was even possible)

- the divorce rate in Maine correlates with per capita consumption of margarine.

- the age of 'Miss America' correlates with the number of murders by steam, hot vapours and hot objects.

As a bonus there are some nice graphs and correlation statistics that may be a nice stepping-off point for discussion of statistical principles like averages, standard deviations, and significance that kids might need when manipulating their complex datasets.

Enjoy

Mark

--

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>
http://vceit.com




Privacy, Virus and Copyright Warning

The information contained in this electronic message (e-mail), and any files transmitted with it:

* is intended for the named recipients only. If you have received this in error, please advise the sender and delete it and any copies immediately;
* Any personal information in this email must be used in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and this always applies even if it has been sent to you in error.
* represents the views of the sender and does not necessarily represent the views or formal advice of Ivanhoe Grammar School;
* may be subject to Copyright, so no further use should be made of it without the author's permission.

The School does not represent or warrant that the email or any files attached do not contain errors or are free from computer viruses or other defects nor does it accept responsibility for any loss or damage resulting directly or indirectly from the use of the email or any attached files.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/informatics/attachments/20160318/e9aae82b/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 135276 bytes
Desc: image001.png
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/informatics/attachments/20160318/e9aae82b/image001-0001.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2678 bytes
Desc: image002.png
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/informatics/attachments/20160318/e9aae82b/image002-0001.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 10208 bytes
Desc: image003.jpg
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/informatics/attachments/20160318/e9aae82b/image003-0001.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2400 bytes
Desc: image004.png
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/informatics/attachments/20160318/e9aae82b/image004-0001.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2275 bytes
Desc: image005.png
Url : http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/informatics/attachments/20160318/e9aae82b/image005-0001.png