Some people say that there are, “lies, damn lies, and statistics,” but that’s just like saying words or photos (it’s PHOTOSHOPPED!) tell lies. Sure, they can, or they can be used to convey true information. The amount of information that can be conveyed through statistics is amazing. Often a good way to get your head around a bunch of data and turn it into useful information is to make a relational graph of the data set.
Today’s strip shows a somewhat unusual type of relational graph, since the data points themselves contain information. They serve the dual purpose of showing the caffeine consumed and silly kitten videos watched, as well as what happens at those specific levels of caffeine and kittens.
If you like hearing about this sort of stats stuff, you’d find The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
by Edward Tufte a good read. That’s where I saw an example of this sort of graph, and where I got the idea for today’s strip.
This comic is for: scientists, statisticians
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Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 4:50 pm.
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