Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All (2005)

Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by stcredzero on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @01:13PM (#627015)

Reminds me of the film clip Alan Kay showed at one of his talks. It was taken at a Harvard graduation, and it shows many, many Harvard graduates, students, and faculty saying that the Earth was warmer in Summer because the orbit takes it closer to the sun.

http://www.sigchi.org/chi98/chikids/vol2/headlines/head2.htm...

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by lutorm on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @04:28PM (#627448)

That's part of a film called "The private universe" (http://www.learner.org/resources/series28.html) about how students can learn stuff in class and then promptly revert to their nonscientific understanding unless they are forced to really confront their prior knowledge in light of what they are being taught. It's a fascinating film.

The importance of explicitly confronting prior knowledge and integrating it into learning is one of the basic principles of learning that came out of the "How People Learn" studies (http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6160).

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by stcredzero on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @04:47PM (#627478)

Thanks for the link. I was wondering where that clip was from. Reminds me of Feynman's bit from his time teaching in Brazil. The students there could stand up in class and recite the textbook description of Polarized Light, but when asked to identify it in the real world in the view out the window, couldn't. (The definition mentioned the example of reflected light, and there was sunlight playing off of water in the bay.)

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by travisjeffery on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @01:25PM (#627042)

It's caused by tilt/angle of Earth, correct?

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by tokenadult on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @02:23PM (#627179)

It's caused by tilt/angle of Earth, correct?

Yes. My second-grade teacher made sure her class knew this. A year or two later I learned that the earth is closer to the sun (at perihelion) when the SOUTHERN Hemisphere is having its summer, and the Northern Hemisphere is having its winter.

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by nazgulnarsil on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @02:56PM (#627253)

which is why the northern hemisphere has a slightly milder climate.

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by billswift on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @08:13PM (#627756)

I just checked my atlas - I remembered correctly - the northern hemisphere has significantly larger temperature variation than the southern. It's probably the difference in land versus water areas more than offsetting the tiny effects of solar distance.

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by DannoHung on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @05:00PM (#627505)

Huh, is this actually true? I had been under the impression that the orbital difference was insignificant from a climate standpoint.

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by nazgulnarsil on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @06:16PM (#627633)

there are actually several things at play, eccentricity, precession, and obliquity. the net result is that the north gets milder winters and cooler summers.

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by tokenadult on Wednesday May 27, 2009 @01:04AM (#628027)

the northern hemisphere has significantly larger temperature variation than the southern

the net result is that the north gets milder winters and cooler summers

One of these statements appears to disagree with the other. If I remember correctly what I've read, the proportion of land rather than ocean in each hemisphere plays a major role in climate, as mentioned by the reply saying that the Northern Hemisphere has more variation in temperature.

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by awad on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @01:59PM (#627123)

yes, since we're on a tilt the two hemispheres get their summer and winter during opposite seasons when their respective hemisphere is 'facing' the sun while the equator pretty much always gets the same amount of sun

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Re:Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them ... by stcredzero on Tuesday May 26, 2009 @02:14PM (#627150)

One of the things that happens in the film clip, is that a professorial gentleman gives the "orbit is closer" answer, then is asked what season it is in the Southern hemisphere when it's Summer in the Northern one.

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