Friday, November 20th, 2009
Definition of an Outlier
Description
A detailed tutorial on the definition of an outlier. Step by step tutorial including several examples of definitions of outliers for reference.
Overview
An outlier is a type of observation of statistical data. It is usually very far away from the other values in the data set, hence the name. Usually it is a number that is much smaller than the other numbers, although it could be much larger than the other numbers as well. Outliers have an equal chance of occuring in any random observation, but they are still rare. Typically when an outlier is found it means there is some sort of mistake, usually a measurement error.
Tags: chance, data, elements, equal, error, larger, measurement, mistake, numbers, observation, outlier, random, set, smaller, statistical, statistics, values
Posted in Statistics | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
How to Avoid the Freshman Dream
Description
A detailed tutorial on avoiding the freshman dream. Step by step tutorial including several examples of the freshman dream for reference.
Overview
The freshman dream is a mistake commonly made in algebra that was named for the probability that only freshman would make this mistake. In reality, this mistake can be made by anyone, regardless of your academic standing. The freshman dream is employed when you are given a squared binomial. If your equation looks like (x + n)^2, people using the freshman dream will write this as x^2 + n^2. However, this is wrong! Your equation should look like (x + n)(x + n) in the first step, and from there it is obvious to see that you would need to use FOIL to solve for it.
Tags: algebra, avoid, binomial, dream, equation, FOIL, formula, freshman, mistake, multiply, quadratic, square
Posted in Algebra | No Comments »
