Degree Days explained

“Degree days” is a measure of energy needed to cool or heat building spaces to a comfortable temperature.  It is useful for planning energy costs for different locations, and is far superior than using average temperatures in which highs and lows tend to cancel eachother.  The link below to the Numbers column of the Wall Street Journal is the best explanation I have seen on the subject.  The second link is to a U. S. government website which is also very helpful.

How Do Energy Companies Measure the Tem…re? Not in Fahrenheit or Celsius – WSJ

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=about_degree_days

 

Making Box Plots on Ti-84

Quick graphs on the Ti-84 is a good way to  see how data is distributed.  The attached document gives step by step instructions along with an example to practice.

Making a Box Plot on the TI 84

Investment Decisions – Brains Vs. Computers; Which is Better?

The two points of view represented below are both well reasoned, conflicting, and cogent, but can they both be right?  The experts currently disagree, but maybe one day the question will be answered definitively.  For now, it makes for an interesting debate, and only time will tell who is right.  Today’s answer may not be tomorrow’s answer.

A key question is how much data does one need in order to make smart investment decisions.  Those who believe best decisions come from analyzing tons of data lean towards computer algorithms, while those who think smart evaluations don’t require looking at every piece of data lean toward human understanding and interpretation.

The term “quants,” refers to those quantitative analysts who crunch the number and are more reliant on computers and algorithms.

Why Brains Are More Reliable Than Machines – WSJ

Quants_ Best Strategy Is From the 17th Century – WSJ

VC Firms Use Big Data to Seek Out the Next Big Thing

Venture Capital firms, that is, firms that invest in funding start-ups, early stage  companies, and companies with good growth potential, are always on the hunt for the next great opportunity.  The article below talks about the trend away from people who are expert in spotting such opportunities, and towards computer based analytics which is believed to be faster and better at finding the “next big thing.”

Venture-Capital Firms Use Big Data to Seek Out the Next Big Thing – WSJ

 

Liberal Arts Become Mathematical

“Adding Math To Save Humanities” is the title of a sidebar article in the Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2017, about liberal arts colleges trying to add more mathematical contents to traditional liberal arts courses to better prepare their graduates for the work world.  Along with the Big Data revolution comes the need for employees in many diverse fields to be able to analyze data and to “rigorously and effectively” use data to answer questions.  “Emory University in Atlanta has created a degree that marries traditionally qualitative disciplines such as anthropology and English with math and statistics.”  This shift is in part to due students enrolling in liberal arts programs in smaller numbers.  Click below for the full article.

saving liberal arts

“At the current rate…” and other assumptions

In order to make any predictions in any area of study, one must make assumptions about the data, and what is likely to affect it going forward.  That is why statistical studies often make use of such statements as:

“At the current rate…”

“If things continue as in the past…”

“Based on what we know now…”

“It is reasonable to assume…”

“If history is a guide…”

“If things don’t change…”

But things do change, and that is what makes predicting the future so difficult, and so vulnerable to known and unknown biases.  While these caveats are unavoidable, and need to be stated, they require the consumer of the statistics to have a reasonable amount of skepticism and a large amount knowledge.

A quote in a The Great Race by Levi Tillemann states that “The available supply of gasoline, as is well know, is quite limited and it behooves the farseeing men of the motor car industry to look for likely substitutes.”  This quote is attributed to Thomas J. Fay, in 1905, in a magazine call Horseless Age.

Statistics on the Ti-84 and Ti-86 calculators

The following document shows how to enter and edit data on the Ti-84 and Ti-86 calculators and how to do some basic statistics with the data.  More documents on this topic to follow.  This is an ideal handout for teacher to stats students.

doing-statistics-on-the-ti

20% error rate found in study of published genetics research papers

In a recent study 20% of genetics research papers using Microsoft Excel have been found to have data errors due to improper data entry.  It turns out that gene names such as SEPT2 and MARCH1 (these are actual gene name abbreviations used by scientists) get converted to dates by Excel and then result in rejected data.  The problem is resolvable if the scientists would make sure the data cells were formatted as “Text,” prior to entering the data.

For the full article in the Washington Post click on the link below.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/26/an-alarming-number-of-scientific-papers-contain-excel-errors/

Deficit v. Debt – knowing the diference

In simple terms, a budget deficit is the difference between what the federal government spends (called outlays) and what it takes in (called revenue or receipts). The national debt, also known as the public debt, is the result of the federal government borrowing money to cover years and years of budget deficits.

What’s the difference between the U.S. deficit and the national debt …

money.howstuffworks.com/difference-between-u-s-deficit–national–debt-.htm

Early Bedtime May Fight Fat

Scientists studying sleep time of preschoolers and obesity in teenages have observed some interesting correlations, but they are not conclusively cause and effect.  As reported in the New York Times, July 19, 2016.

Early Bedtime May Fight Fat NYT 7_19_16