U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: math question verrrrrry off topic

Re: math question verrrrrry off topic



Talk about a small sample, and using himself as the sample???? What happened to education?? Somebody got left behind.......

Bogdan
a former teacher :)

Dave S wrote:

Well, I am OT again. If it gets too much, just let me know. I don't know,
somehow as I grow older, I seem to like things on the lighter side.

Tonight I went to a meeting. I worked with university students a lot.
Tonight I chatted to a young sophomore. He is really a smart guy. During the
chat, I asked him how early did he have to go to school (because it is cold
here in MI in the morning). He said it doesn't matter because he skipped
most of his classes (he is an engineering student. Engineering subjects are
more standardized and "fixed" especially for freshmen/sophomores so you can
learn them yourself from textbook and homeworks).

Then he said, "for my 1st and 3rd semester I skipped almost all the classes,
and I got a GPA of 3.9. The 2nd semester I attended almost all of my
classes, and I got a GPA of 3.6; so my conclusion is it is better to skip
classes."

Talk about making conclusion from statistical data, huh? :-)


Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Katharine Thayer [mailto:kthayer@pacifier.com] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:49 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: math question verrrrrry off topic

:--)


On Jan 18, 2008, at 6:23 PM, Diana Bloomfield wrote:


Hey Katharine,

I don't know-- maybe.  I honestly didn't read the other answers.  :)


On Jan 18, 2008, at 8:43 PM, Katharine Thayer wrote:



Hmm, I thought that's what we all already have said, isn't it? That that theoretical probability (1/4x1/4x1/4) would hold only if assumptions were met, and since assumptions are obviously not met (for example, judging is not a random lottery of course
but is done
on the basis of criteria, arbitrary or otherwise but certainly not random). Also, no one has said whether the 600 entries
are 600 works
or 600 people; I was assuming that they are 600 works representing fewer than 600 people, in other words people could submit
more than
one work, in which case, as I said, the number of works
submitted per
person would also have to be figured into the equation somehow. Besides, if one person submits ten pieces and another
person submits
one, the ten pieces by the one person couldn't be considered independent entries in the same way one of those ten could be considered independent of the one from the other person, and independence is also an assumption that must be met in order to consider the probability of acceptance to be the same for all entries.
Katharine




On Jan 18, 2008, at 4:25 PM, Diana Bloomfield wrote:



Okay, Chris. Here is it-- straight from my resident statistician
here:

If they were the only 3 people from that institution who applied, AND if judging was completely random, then the
probability of this
is roughly 1 in 64 (key word: roughly). If more than
that applied
from this same institution, and only 3 got in, then the
calculation
will be more complex.

Hope that helps. :)
On Jan 17, 2008, at 12:00 PM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:




Where else but this list can I ask these weird questions about chemistry and math and computers and alt???

OK for you math people (Yves?): If there is a show and 600 entries, and 150 are accepted, there is a 1 in 4 chance of acceptance. If 3 people from the same institution are accepted what percent chance is that--is it 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 or a
1.5% chance
or is it a more complex formula?

Forgive the off topic request but it does relate to
photo as 3 of
our program got into a photo show and I want to be able to mathematically brag about it to the dept. head/dean.
Chris

Christina Z. Anderson
Assistant Professor
Photo Option Coordinator
Montana State University
CZAphotography.com
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--
________________________________________________________________
  Bogdan Karasek
  Montréal, Québec                     bogdan@bogdanphoto.com
  Canada                               www.bogdanphoto.com

                     "I bear witness"
________________________________________________________________