Maths and real life

Any fool can know; the point is to understand

graphIn the space of eight days, three passenger planes have been lost in mid-flight. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was apparently downed by a missile over eastern Ukraine, then a plane crashed in Taiwan and yesterday another one disappeared en route to Algeria from Burkina Faso. A cluster of accidents so close together! An anomaly? An unlikely coincidence? Or something more sinister?

Going off on a bit of a tangent perhaps, the latest item on the ‘Dark Matter‘ page illustrates the pitfalls of knowing maths and not understanding it. Specifically, it shows the perils of extrapolating data…

This is the true story of a Dutch nurse who was convicted as a serial murderer, largely on the basis of testimony by an expert witness spouting flawed statistics. Click here.

About thespeedofdark

David Winship has written an unauthorised autobiography and several critically disdained literary tomes. His work is frequently compared with Steinbeck, Orwell and Hemingway, but unfortunately Mike Steinbeck, Daisy Orwell and Howard Hemingway were all terrible writers. He has been totally overlooked for the most prestigious literary awards worldwide, which is a shame as most of the words are spelled correctly. In fact, his books contain material that ranks with the finest literary works in history: all the right letters are there, just not necessarily in the right order.

Dave’s blog (The Speed Of Dark Blog) is part of his crusade for truth and justice and universal entitlement to free real ale. It may well be that his whole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

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Category(s): Dark Mutterings, Science
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