| Discussion: | All Topics in Probability & Statistics |
| Topic: | The "Bell Curve" applet discussion |
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| Subject: | The "Bell Curve" applet discussion |
| Author: | rabeldin |
| Date: | Jan 12 2005 |
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"Student: So if I flipped a coin, and kept track of the number of heads,
forever, I'd really get half heads.
Mentor: Yes. And if you flipped two coins at a time, and kept track of how many
heads you got each time, you might get a histogram like this: "
This reinforces the common misconception that at some point the number of heads
and number of tails will become equal. In fact, theory shows that large
(absolute) deviations from 50:50 are very likely. It is only the relative error
that goes to zero. I suggest that the "student's" comment be edited to avoid
the false potential interpretation.
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