December 5, 2011

Stat of the Week Competition: December 3-9 2011

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

  • Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday December 9 2011.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of December 3-9 2011 inclusive.
  • Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

The fine print:

  • Judging will be conducted by the blog moderator in liaison with staff at the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.
  • The judges’ decision will be final.
  • The judges can decide not to award a prize if they do not believe a suitable statistic has been posted in the preceeding week.
  • Only the first nomination of any individual example of a statistic used in the NZ media will qualify for the competition.
  • Employees (other than student employees) of the Statistics department at the University of Auckland are not eligible to win.
  • The person posting the winning entry will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.
  • The blog moderator will contact the winner via their notified email address and advise the details of the $20 iTunes voucher to that same email address.
  • The competition will commence Monday 8 August 2011 and continue until cancellation is notified on the blog.

Nominations

  • avatar
    David Welch

    Statistic: “Almost half of Kiwis working overseas make more than $100,000 a year.”
    Source: NZ Herald
    Date: 8 December

    A classic case of a non-representative sample — the real statistic here is that half of 15000 Kea members who chose to respond to an online survey earn over 100k. Throughout the article, the proper “respondents” is replaced with “kiwis”. But then it wouldn’t be news-worthy. It seems that Kea NZ are keen on getting NZers back home but if their press releases generate news reports like this, they’ll be pushing people in the opposite direction.

    12 years ago

  • avatar
    Sammie Jia

    Statistic: In repeated tests, rats freed another trapped rat in their cage, even when yummy chocolate served as a tempting distraction. Twenty-three of the 30 rats opened the trap by pushing in a door. The rats could have gobbled the chocolate before freeing their partners, but often didn’t, choosing to help and share the goodies.
    Source: NZ herald
    Date: 9 Dec, 2011

    This rats test is interesting. Repeated experiment on 30 rats was a reasonable experiment.

    12 years ago