[Informatics] SAT Hypothesis: spurious correlations

[Mark]

Or... seeing people drown by falling into natural water causes onlookers to
trip over their own feet and die?

And it's scientifically proven that clowns deserve to die...

On 18 March 2016 at 12:35, ATKINSON-BUCK, Damien <
Damien.ATKINSON-BUCK at ivanhoe.com.au> wrote:

> 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.
>
>
>
> 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
>
> [image: 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.facebook.com/IvanhoeGrammarSchool>
> <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
>
> http://vceit.com
>
>

-- 

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com
http://vceit.com
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