Re: Underestimated stats


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Re: Underestimated stats



> In article <36B77D4D.5DDB65EF@echip.com>,
>           bwheeler@echip.com (Bob Wheeler) wrote:
>
> ] Hint: if the units are inches, so that the data is
> ] 6 in, 7 in, etc. What are the units of 1.66 ?

Dick Smith responded:
> How is this a hint to the solution of the original poster's problem? :-)
> The units (which will be the same for the SD as the original data units,
> whatever they are) will not affect the /value/ of the SD, which was the
> subject of the original query.

It's a pretty good hint.  The person who posed the original question had
filed to take the square root, was thus looking at the variance.  If the
data were measured in inches, then the variance is measured in square
inches.  But (as you point out) the standard deviation should be in the same
units as the original data.  The hint may have been a bit obscure, since too
few people pay attention to units in things like this, but an obscure hint
is still a hint.
--
Darryl K. Nester                E-mail: mailto:nesterd@bluffton.edu
Assoc. Prof. of Mathematics        WWW: http://www.bluffton.edu/~nesterd
Bluffton College                 Phone: 419-358-3483
Bluffton, OH  45817-1704           Fax: 419-358-3232