March 26, 2012

Stat of the Week Competition: March 24-30 2012

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

  • Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday March 30 2012.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of March 24-30 2012 inclusive.
  • Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

The fine print:

  • Judging will be conducted by the blog moderator in liaison with staff at the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.
  • The judges’ decision will be final.
  • The judges can decide not to award a prize if they do not believe a suitable statistic has been posted in the preceeding week.
  • Only the first nomination of any individual example of a statistic used in the NZ media will qualify for the competition.
  • Employees (other than student employees) of the Statistics department at the University of Auckland are not eligible to win.
  • The person posting the winning entry will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.
  • The blog moderator will contact the winner via their notified email address and advise the details of the $20 iTunes voucher to that same email address.
  • The competition will commence Monday 8 August 2011 and continue until cancellation is notified on the blog.

Nominations

  • avatar
    Miranda Devlin

    Statistic: Wairarapa has best odds for tonight’s $22m Powerball
    Source: The Dominion Post
    Date: 24/03/2012

    Unfortunately there are a lot of people who understand Lotto so poorly (as correctly stated by David Scott at the end of the article) that they would actually believe this headline.

    13 years ago

  • avatar

    Statistic: Looking back in anger can make you sick: study
    Source: Herald via Daily Mail
    Date: 28/03/12

    To be fair, the article does hint at a deeper analysis of actual causal factors in it’s later paragraphs, but it’s headline and opening tone is typical of such coverage.

    13 years ago

  • avatar
    Sammie Jia

    Statistic: $25m Powerball win could be in the stars

    First division winners in 2010/11
    * Taurus: 13 per cent
    * Libra: 11 per cent
    * Capricorn: 10 per cent
    * Aquarius: 9 per cent
    * Virgo: 9 per cent
    * Pisces: 9 per cent
    * Leo: 8 per cent
    Source: NZ herald
    Date: 29/03/2012

    Maybe this is just for fun.

    but when we look at the percentage summary table a imagine some type of F-test. I cannot imagine a small p-value from this data.

    13 years ago

  • avatar
    Florence Baker

    Statistic: Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder
    Source: MSN News
    Date: 30/03/12

    This study was completed in 2 phases; first an observational study followed by an experiment.
    A placebo effect which appeared during the experiment is discussed.

    13 years ago