Statisticians in History
Statisticians @GVSU
Statistical Blunders
Potpourri
100

KNOWN AS “THE LADY WITH THE LAMP,” THIS NURSE DEVELOPED NOVEL METHODS FOR VISUALIZING DATA TO PETITION FOR BETTER CONDITIONS AT MILITARY FIELD HOSPITALS.

WHO WAS FLORENCE NIGHTENGALE?

100

He is a Clemson Tigers fan, has a dog named Zeke and a very loud laugh, and is an avid golfer.

Who is Paul Stephenson?

100

Repeat this mantra anytime you think a change in one variable occurred as a direct result of a change to another variable based on results of an observational study.

What is “Correlation is not causation”?

100

The company named for this statistical software suite earned 3 Billion USD in 2020 and is still owned by the North Carolina State University statistics professors who created it.

What is SAS?

200

This statistician is known for his work in exploratory data analysis, especially the boxplot, as well as the ANOVA post hoc procedure that bears his name.

Who is John Tukey?

200

This stats professor co-teaches history of statistics and often gets a pie in the face on pi day.

Who is Phyllis Curtiss?

200

The unlucky person who keeps betting after losing ten times in a row in the mistaken belief that they are “due” for a win has fallen prey to this common misconception.

What is the Gambler's Fallacy?

200

R is a free statistical software package and language that was based on this older statistical programming language that also has a single-letter name.

 

What is S?

300

ANOVA, the importance of randomization, and many key pillars of experimental design can be attributed to this statistician, often referred to as the "father of modern statistics." The F-distribution is named for him.

Who is R.A. Fisher?

300

The graduate studies coordinator for the Stats department, he shares a first name with another GVSU Statistics professor.

Who is Bob Downer?

300

Some people incorrectly ignore this type of data observation simply because it is this type of data observation.

What is an outlier?

300

This probability distribution is often used to model counting data. The name means “fish” in French.

What is the Poisson distribution?

400

William S. Gosset was working for this historic brewery when he published his work on the t-distribution under the pseudonym “student.”

What is Guinness?

400

Of the two GVSU statistics professors that share his first name, this one is not Pittsburgh Steelers fan but would be happy to talk to you about Shiny apps 

Who is Dan Adrian?

400

These should not be ignored; rather, they should be thoroughly checked before applying parametric tests.

What are assumptions (or conditions)?

500

The correlation coefficient and chi-square test for independence is associated with this statistician who shares his last name with a less famous GVSU statistics professor.

Who is Karl Pearson?

500

He drives to MAK in a big pickup truck where he manages the Statistical Consulting Center.

Who is Sango Otieno?

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