Hi
Rick cited the Best article, which is good. It had also been
mentioned recently on the sci.stats.edu newsgroup, in particular
an allusion to Best's discussion of a statement in a 1995 journal
article to the effect that since 1950 the number of children
gunned down in the US had doubled every year. Without some
appreciation of numbers, people cannot appreciate how completely
impossible this is. Here are the values that would be involved
if only 1 child had been gunned down in 1950, culiminating in 13
trillion being gunned down in 1995. Best notes that this far
exceeds the total population of the world throughout its entire
history. He tracked down the apparent source for the figure, and
it appears to be a statement that the number of child deaths from
gunshots doubled since 1950.
Year # Children Gunned Down
1950 1
1951 2
1952 4
1953 8
1954 16
1955 32
1956 64
1957 128
1958 256
1959 512
1960 1,024
1961 2,048
1962 4,096
1963 8,192
1964 16,384
1965 32,768
1966 65,536
1967 131,072
1968 262,144
1969 524,288
1970 1,048,576
1971 2,097,152
1972 4,194,304
1973 8,388,608
1974 16,777,216
1975 33,554,432
1976 67,108,864
1977 134,217,728
1978 268,435,456
1979 536,870,912
1980 1,073,741,824
1981 2,147,483,648
1982 4,294,967,296
1983 8,589,934,592
1984 17,179,869,184
1985 34,359,738,368
1986 68,719,476,736
1987 137,438,953,472
1988 274,877,906,944
1989 549,755,813,888
1990 1,099,511,627,776
1991 2,199,023,255,552
1992 4,398,046,511,104
1993 8,796,093,022,208
1994 17,592,186,044,416
1995 35,184,372,088,832
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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