Re: The air track experiment:!Cooked Data

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 11:26 8/26/99 -0400, you wrote:
> > ... Eddington had to be
> > very selective (just drop off that anomalous data point!)

> ... I suspect that it happens a
> lot more than we are willing to admit. Most of us, I'm sure, have, on
> looking at a data point that just looks awful (i.e., doesn't fit with
> the rest of the data) have at least been tempted to say, "That can't
> be right. I'll just ignore that point and use at the rest."....

> Hugh Haskell

I exclude the bulk of this splendid review to note that the exclusion of
outriders is not a sneaky-pete issue, but an element of a most
 respectable way of handling experimental data statistically.

It can be shown that the principal result of using median like values
instead of mean like values is to require rather more numbers in the
sample. Justifications are available for excluding rather large proportions
of data points at the skirts in rigorous analyses.
Needless to say, there is a right way.



brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK