POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Another probability question : Re: Another probability question Server Time
4 Sep 2024 11:23:23 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Another probability question  
From: gregjohn
Date: 8 Feb 2010 12:35:01
Message: <web.4b704ad0cb2c879330bf98980@news.povray.org>
I had one today.   Given a distribution of things, say peoples' weights, there
will tend to be a normal distribution.  I'm sure there are all kinds of
reasonable predictions one can make based on the statistics.  For example, I
suppose if you know the weights of 1/10 of a huge population, you can guess what
percentage are over X pounds, etc. You can also probably predict the likelihood
of whether another small set could be a part of the larger set.  I'm sure the
math is very good for this.

But does the math predict that there will be a subset with negative weights? Say
one in a quadrillion people will have negative height or weight.  We of course
know it's absurd but would the math tell us to wait until we've seen a
quadrillion before dissing the idea.  Or does everyone know to use a different
distribution statistic like poisson?

Apologies if this were thread hijacking.


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