<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by porkyboy:
This thread makes me laugh. If we applied statistics and math to everything, nothing would ever happen..
would you get married? heck no, 50% fail
would you drive? heck no, too many wrecks
would you play the slots? heck no 98% lose.
would you smoke?
would you drink?
would you do anything?
Mathematicians love to make arguments with numbers, fact is, real life doesn't work that way. Gee wait, there have been no hijackings since the TSA took over..that proves things are safer, doesn't it! Eureka!
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Holy Cow! I'm a mathematician so I thought I'd steer clear of this thread, but this post got my goat (whatever that means).
married - yes 50% is good odds at this
drive - yes, the % of wrecks is NOT "too many"
slots - sure I play, I count on losing though if you play long enough
smoke - I have, but I know the risk
drink - I have, but I know the risk
anything - yes, including die eventually.
Properly done, you can TRY TO apply math and statistics to everything. In fact one of the most fascinating and beautiful academic endeavors is to apply mathematics to understanding mathematics itself. (See Kurt Godel on this.)
The first post is self evident. A small incidence percentage appllied to a large universe generates many false positives. How can anyone dispute this?
Real mathematics works, false applications of it don't.