Questions tagged [statistics]

For questions about the science that deals with classification, analysis and interpretation of numerical facts and data.

68 questions
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Law of the Unconscious Statistician - history of the term?

The "Law of the Unconscious Statistician" states that, for a random variable $X$ with density $f_X(x)$ and a function of it $h(X)$ we have that $$E[h(X)] = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f_X(x)h(x) dx$$ In words, we do not need to obtain the distribution…
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Why do we see the modern version of regression as "Fisher's regression"?

In Fisher's paper, he did not include the error term. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Fisher/Methods/chap5.htm But Durbin & Watson suggested the error term, and also made the matrix form of the modern version of…
user2986288
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Why is William Playfair seldom heard about in mathematics?

William Playfair was a Scottish engineer and economist, who invented the pie and bar charts as well as the line graph, which have all played an indubitably ubiquitous role in modern statistics. I hadn't actually come across Playfair, before I…
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Were many (famous) theoretical laws in science based on "Statistical Regression"?

In a essay about the meaning of life, the famous scientist Schrodinger once said "Physical laws rest on atomic statistics and are therefore only approximate" (http://www.whatislife.ie/downloads/What-is-Life.pdf , page 4). At the same time, I have…
stats_noob
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Why Was Sequential Analysis Classified?

In the Introduction of his "Sequential Analysis" Wald writes that Because of the usefulness of the sequential probability ratio test in development work on military and naval equipment, it was classified Restricted within the meaning of the…
hyportnex
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Statistical Power as a Microscope Metaphor

An answer on this question on the cross validated stack exchange compared statistical power to a microscope, such that "in order to see small things you need a powerful microscope" is analogous to "in order to detect small effects you need high…
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Where to find average man/woman drawings as proposed by Quetelet?

Where to find average man/woman drawings as proposed by Adolphe Quetelet? Drawings along the years would be very nice. He proposed the idea of average man in 1835 (see https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=2154). To see how the…