#statistics

He could not believe that any of them might actually hit somebody. If one did, what a nowhere way to go: killed by accident; slain not as an individual but by sheer statistical probability, by the calculated chance of searching fire, even as he himself might be at any moment. Mathematics! Mathematics! Algebra! Geometry! When 1st and 3d Squads came diving and tumbling back over the tiny crest, Bell was content to throw himself prone, press his cheek to the earth, shut his eyes, and lie there. God, oh, God! Why am I here? Why am I here? After a moment's thought, he decided he better change it to: why are we here. That way, no agency of retribution could exact payment from him for being selfish. ↗

— James Jones

#bell #death #fear #geometry #machine-guns

I could ask the Phillies to keep me on to add to my statistics, but my love for the game won't let me do that. ↗

— Mike Schmidt

#ask #could #game #i #keep

In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end. ↗

— Tom Seaver

#aim #baseball #consistency #dwell #end

You cannot feed the hungry on statistics. ↗

— Heinrich Heine

#cannot #feed #hungry #statistics #you

The value for which P=0.05, or 1 in 20, is 1.96 or nearly 2; it is convenient to take this point as a limit in judging whether a deviation ought to be considered significant or not. Deviations exceeding twice the standard deviation are thus formally regarded as significant. Using this criterion we should be led to follow up a false indication only once in 22 trials, even if the statistics were the only guide available. Small effects will still escape notice if the data are insufficiently numerous to bring them out, but no lowering of the standard of significance would meet this difficulty. ↗

— Ronald A. Fisher

#statistics #design

There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics. ↗

— Benjamin Disraeli

#lies #lying #statistics #truth #truth

Another mistaken notion connected with the law of large numbers is the idea that an event is more or less likely to occur because it has or has not happened recently. The idea that the odds of an event with a fixed probability increase or decrease depending on recent occurrences of the event is called the gambler's fallacy. For example, if Kerrich landed, say, 44 heads in the first 100 tosses, the coin would not develop a bias towards the tails in order to catch up! That's what is at the root of such ideas as "her luck has run out" and "He is due." That does not happen. For what it's worth, a good streak doesn't jinx you, and a bad one, unfortunately , does not mean better luck is in store. ↗

— Leonard Mlodinow

#luck #math #probability #statistics #math

Statistics, likelihoods, and probabilities mean everything to men, nothing to God. ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#almighty #god #likelihood #might #omnipotence

Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable. ↗

— Mark Twain

#more #pliable #statistics #stubborn

We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature. The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe. ↗

— Rolf-Dieter Heuer

#detailed #discovery #down #larger #light