Doggy DOE, Part 1Design on a dime
Tue, 10/29/2013 - 12:39
Design of experiments (DOE) is an extremely practical and cost-effective way to study the effects of different factors and their interactions on a response.
But finding your way through DOE-land can be daunting when you’re just getting started. So… Optical Illusions, Zen Koans, and Simpson’s ParadoxPay close attention to the statistics behind the curtain
Tue, 10/15/2013 - 11:09
What do you see when you look at the image in figure 1? Do you see a bulging sphere that stretches the checkerboard pattern in the center, causing its lines to curve?
Are you sure? Look again. This time, test any “curved” line by holding a… Warning: Failing to Display a Pareto Chart May Be Hazardous to Your HealthA sobering analysis following the sequence that begins, ‘If only...’
Wed, 09/18/2013 - 11:52
Defects can cause a lot of pain to your customer. They can also cause a lot of pain inside your body.
The picture below shows my broken right clavicle. Ouch! You might think of it as the defective output from my bicycling process, which needs… Hotshot Stats on Smokejumper Parachute Service LifeStudent project is impetus for potential policy change in two federal agencies
Wed, 08/21/2013 - 10:02
It’s wildfire season out West. Time to be in awe of the destructive power of nature.
According to the USDA Forest Service active fire maps, more than 300 fires are burning across 1.5 million acres—including 35 large, uncontained blazes.
Shifting… Graph Quest: How to Show Life on Venus Is Safer Than Life on MarsSometimes interesting patterns lurk in your data
Mon, 08/05/2013 - 11:31
True confession: Nothing fires quickly from the top of my head—at least anything very lucid or useful.
To come up with a good idea, I have to dredge thoughts slowly from the thick sludge and sediment in my brain. It’s not always easy. There are … Uncle Joe’s Fantasy: Picking the Perfect Age to Reverse Your Aging ProcessThe older you are, the longer you’ll live
Fri, 07/26/2013 - 16:55
My Uncle Joe is always fantasizing about ways to outsmart Father Time. “Suppose you could reverse your aging process at some fixed point in your life,” he says to me, a crazed gleam in his eye. “So you could pick any age to turn the clock backwards… T for 2Should I use a paired t or a two-sample t?
Tue, 07/16/2013 - 12:25
Boxers or briefs. Republican or Democrat. Yin or yang. Why is it that life often seems to boil down to two choices?
Heck, it even happens when you open the Basic Stats menu in Minitab. You’ll see a choice between a two-sample t-test and a paired t… What Is a T-Test?And why is it like telling a kid to clean up that mess in the kitchen?
Fri, 06/14/2013 - 12:16
A t-test is one of the most frequently used procedures in statistics. But even people who frequently use t-tests often don’t know exactly what happens when their data are wheeled away and operated on behind the curtain using statistical software… Get Your Way, Every TimeSeven default settings in Minitab you didn’t know you could change
Wed, 05/15/2013 - 11:08
Unless you’re 3 years old, you probably can’t have things just the way you want them all the time. You can’t always have peanut butter and ranch dressing on your toast. Or ketchup on your pineapple. Or sugar sprinkles on your peas. But there is one… Truth, Beauty, Nonparametrics, and Symmetry PlotsNot all data fall into the world’s most beautiful distribution
Mon, 04/29/2013 - 16:52
“Shall I compare thee to a standard normal distribution?
Thou art more symmetric and more bell-shaped…”
—Melvin Shakespeare (William’s lesser-known statistician brother)
The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that symmetry was one of the…
