[Informatics] SAT Hypothesis: spurious correlations

[Mark]

Hi, correlators

More correlation fun can be had at http://www.google.com/trends/correlate

Set the country to Australia, type in a key word (like "clowns") and start
wasting your only free period for the day...

Cheers
Mark


On 18 March 2016 at 11:28, Mark <mark at vceit.com> wrote:

> 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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