Ok, John here is an accurate report to date: On Thu, 29 Apr 1999 08:35:38 -0700 (MST)
John Carmichael Tucson tel: 520-696-1709 website: http://www.azstarnet.com/~pappas corresponding out of: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Phil Pappas) asked whether the terms "accuracy" and "precision" are interchangeable. --------------Summary of responses--------------------------- There were 32 independent replies from 21 people, up to and including Malcolm Purves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sat, 01 May 1999 11:39:07 +0100) The following can be concluded: This list is populated by creatively independent folk who tend to be happily diverted into precise minutiae well wide of the famed moving shadow. The accuracy of this statement can be correlated to the measurement of the pH of the fluid in our moderator's stomach as he debates "on topic or off topic?". I selected one subject of interest (IMHO) from each of the posters in chronological order to give the following sample: misaligned heliochonometers, Old Timers (ancient sundials?!), relativity, accurate by agreement, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, truth, standard deviation, lice removal, tightly grouped around the bull, Tukey's test, wrong, barleycorns in boots and shoes, stroke of mercy, cost of precise accuracy, the ubiquitous BYA which is a smallish unit of energy, Statistical Treatment of Experimental Data, furlongs and fifths, pfund, Robert Pershing Wadlow, Fernando! and finally, &[EMAIL PROTECTED] Methinks we owe a vote of thanks to our moderator for tolerating this eclectic miscellany (that one is for you, F.C.!) which has an enormous deviation from the meaningful. It even takes a leap of faith to accept that the central tendency has anything to do with the moving shadow. I have a nagging question, though. If I measure the time of the summer solstice in 1999 how do I use the words "accurate" and "precise" or their derivatives in describing my measurement of the instant of this event? Lice, you say, John? Only down under? Pity. BTW how WOULD you make the above measurement? Thanks, t -- Tom Semadeni O [EMAIL PROTECTED] o aka I (Ned) Ames . Britthome Bounty ><<((((*> Box 176 Britt ON P0G 1A0 'Phone 705 383 0195 fax 2920 45.768* North 80.600* West
