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Presenting: “Skewed Data”
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
An interesting meme was making the rounds on Mastodon. The first row of this meme paints a happy picture for the USA.
At the same time, the Alberta government was bragging that the average wage in Alberta has risen to $34 an hour. This wage translates into about $60,000 a year. This income should qualify people to get a mortgage for a small house or condo. When average people can get such a domicile, all is economically well in Alberta. The “American dream” in Alberta is still alive. So says the Alberta government.
A Basic Statistics Primer
Most university students have to take one statistics course in their undergraduate years. Most university students regard this course as something trivial that the “authorities” are forcing them to get their degree. I was one of those students. I took the approach to learn just enough to pass the course.
In my few engineering years, I had only one occasion to apply rigorous statistics to make a certain point. I returned to the statistics textbook to learn how to do a t-test. I haven’t done one since.
Despite my less-than-enthusiastic approach to university statistics, my statistics course had provided me with insights in how to analyze data. Of all my 48 engineering…
