All Questions
Tagged with statistics mathematics
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Why is the standard deviation bias correction factor called c₄?
The term to remove bias from an estimate of standard deviation for a normal distribution is referred to as $c_4$.
What is the origin or reason for using that notation for the correction factor?
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Why was the term random "variable" applied to a mapping?
I think I'm correct in saying a random variable is a mapping from the sample space to the real line (or more generally to $\mathbb{R}^n$. If I'm right then random variable seems a very odd way for a ...
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Who said that math or statistics is not free from class interest?
I'm not 100% sure this is the right site for this question, but here it goes.
An already dead professor said in a lecture that Stalin (or perhaps another communist leader) wrote once something along ...
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Did Egon Pearson have a PhD?
Did the statistician Egon Pearson have a PhD? If not, to what extent did he write a dissertation?
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Markov chains origins and how is Christianity involved
In a book called Advanced Data Analysis from an Elementary Point of View by Cosma Rohilla Shalizi, page 405, the first instance of "Markov process" is accompanied by a footnote which reads
...
John Cataldo
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Stories about the consequences of statistical simplification?
I am currently preparing a presentation about the value of more complex (specically: non-Gaussian) statistical inference. I thought it might be interesting to start the presentation with a small real-...
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How was mathematics used in World War II to "act on the right amount of intelligence"?
In the movie "The Imitation Game", Alan Turing along with his team crack the German encryption machine Enigma but advises his superiors to not act on all decrypted intelligence, as that might lead to ...
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Significance level $\alpha$ values - who devised to use $\alpha = 5 \%$?
In a statistical hypotheses testing a significance level $\alpha$ has to be set. The most often, $\alpha$ is set to be 5 %, sometimes 1 % and 10 % values are used.
Value of $\alpha$ tells us what is ...
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How did Weibull derive the three parameter Weibull distribution?
How did Weibull or any other mathematician arrive at the above expression? I saw the 1951 paper, but it is not clear to me. In 1939 he had published a book called "A Statistical Theory of the Strength ...
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Where does $M$ for expected value in Russian papers come from?
In modern papers in statistics, it is common to use the symbol $E[X]$ to refer to the expectation of a random variable $X$.
While reading (a translated version of) "Convergence Rate of Nonparametric ...
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Why do many names of technical and scientific subjects end with "ics"?
The names of many technical and scientific subjects, like mathematics, physics, statistics, etc., etc., end with letters "ics". What is meant by this, if anything? Was there any logic behind it or is ...
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How is the word kernel associated with distributions?
I am trying to rationalize the meaning of the term kernel, especially when it is associated with distributions. The English and German etymology all show that the literal meaning is corn (English) and ...
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Introduction of shape parameters in the formulation of probability distribution
I'm familiar with the definition of location, scale, and shape parameters, and the type of distributions they parametrized. I'm interested in understanding how shape parameters became part of the ...
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Where did the story about Newcomb observing Benford’s Law come from?
The story goes that in the 1880s Newcomb noticed that logarithm tables were more worn down towards the beginning of the book (where the leading digit of the logs were 1). This led him to formulate an ...
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Who came up with a number of the theoretical plates equation?
In chromatography, the signal is shaped like a Gaussian peak, and it is plotted against time vs. instrument's signal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatography#/media/File:Rt_5_12.png
(a) One of ...
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