July 14, 2014
Supermoon
Why supermoons aren’t a big deal for earthquakes, based on XKCD
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »
It’s not a good comparison because a men at the extremes can be at least 50% taller and, I would guess, 300% stronger than the average man. If men varied as much as the moon than perhaps supermoon/man might really look like superman.
The moon is working within a very complex system (unlike supermoon/man who does all his own work) – when a number of extreme events happen at once maybe 7% stronger is enough.
http://www.normantranscript.com/headlines/x1927864613/Earthquakes-cold-temperatures-make-for-unusual-July-weather-across-Oklahoma
10 years ago