On numbers meaning something
From a 2014 interview of Randall Munroe (XKCD) at 538,
We’re always seeing things like, “This canal project will require 1.15 million tons of concrete.” It’s presented as if it should mean something to us, as if numbers are inherently informative. So we feel like if we don’t understand it, it’s our fault.
[…]
…Or is this just easy, space-filling trivia? A good rule of thumb might be, “If I added a zero to this number, would the sentence containing it mean something different to me?” If the answer is “no,” maybe the number has no business being in the sentence in the first place.
via Jenny Bryan
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »
These sort of things are often presented as 1.5 million tons of concrete or 1 million concrete driveways. But of course that means nothing either
8 years ago
The Herald often gets millions and billions mixed up. Sometimes even that error is hard to pick.
8 years ago