Tag: Statistical Thinking

Rick Wicklin 0
Simulate the Monty Hall Problem in SAS

The Monty Hall Problem is one of the most famous problems in elementary probability. It is famous because the correct solution is counter-intuitive and because it caused an uproar when it appeared in the "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine in 1990. Discussing the problem has been known to create

Rick Wicklin 0
What is the coefficient of variation?

I sometimes wonder whether some functions and options in SAS software ever get used. Last week I was reviewing new features that were added to SAS/IML 13.1. One of the new functions is the CV function, which computes the sample coefficient of variation for data. Maybe it is just me,

Rick Wicklin 0
Does this kurtosis make my tail look fat?

What is kurtosis? What does negative or positive kurtosis mean, and why should you care? How do you compute kurtosis in SAS software? It is not clear from the definition of kurtosis what (if anything) kurtosis tells us about the shape of a distribution, or why kurtosis is relevant to

Rick Wicklin 0
Fat-tailed and long-tailed distributions

The tail of a probability distribution is an important notion in probability and statistics, but did you know that there is not a rigorous definition for the "tail"? The term is primarily used intuitively to mean the part of a distribution that is far from the distribution's peak or center.

Rick Wicklin 0
Stigler's seven pillars of statistical wisdom

Wisdom has built her house; She has hewn out her seven pillars.      – Proverbs 9:1 At the 2014 Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston, Stephen Stigler gave the ASA President's Invited Address. In forty short minutes, Stigler laid out his response to the age-old question "What is statistics?" His answer was

Rick Wicklin 0
Why it's okay to guess on the SAT test

Should you ever guess on the SAT® or PSAT standardized tests? My son is getting ready to take the preliminary SAT (PSAT), which is a practice test for the SAT. A teacher gave his class this advice regarding guessing: For a multiple-choice questions, if you can eliminate one or two

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Rick Wicklin 0
What is Mahalanobis distance?

I previously described how to use Mahalanobis distance to find outliers in multivariate data. This article takes a closer look at Mahalanobis distance. A subsequent article will describe how you can compute Mahalanobis distance. Distance in standard units In statistics, we sometimes measure "nearness" or "farness" in terms of the

Rick Wicklin 0
Explaining coincidence

I was on vacation when a family member sidled up to me. "Rick, you're a statistician..." he began. I knew I was in trouble. He proceeded to tell me the story of Joseph "Newsboy" Moriarty, a New Jersey mobster who rose to prominence and became known as the bookie who