On 4/03/2009, at 11:50 AM, Michael A. Miller wrote:
"Dieter" == Dieter Menne <dieter.me...@menne-biomed.de> writes:
And, since my son asked me and I am basketball ignorant:
Why are basketball scores mostly much too close to
equality? The arguments (loose power when leading) might
suggest that 2:0 might not be significant, but relevant. I
tend to argue the other way round though, in medical
statistics.
Sports scores are not statistics, they are measurements (counts)
of the number of times each team scores. There is no sampling
and vanishingly small possibility of systematic error in the
measurement.
I think this comment indicates a fundamental misunderstanding
of the nature of statistics in general and the concept of variability
in particular. Measurement error is only *one possible* source
of variability and is often a minor --- or as in the case of
sports scores a non-existent --- source.
cheers,
Rolf Turner
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