Editing 3104: Tukey

{{comic
| number    = 3104
| date      = June 18, 2025
| title     = Tukey
| image     = tukey_2x.png
| imagesize = 392x276px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Numbers can be tricky. On the day of my 110th birthday, I'll be one day younger than John Tukey was on his.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by TUKEY'S 110.000 YEAR OLD GHOST. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

The comic depicts a quote from {{w|John W. Tukey}}, an American mathematician and statistician: "Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise." The quote originates 
from a paper called "The Future of Data Analysis" in part 11 where he discusses the importance of facing uncertainty.

Randall then gives Tukey's age as 110.000 years (that is, 110 years to three decimal places), a very precise answer to the question of "how old is John Tukey?" However when it comes to his birthday (arguably the right question in this context) he only gives the approximate answer of "sometime this week." (it was actually on the 16th of June, two days before this comic was published).

The title text states that Randall would be one day younger than Tukey would be on his 110th birtday. This is due to leap days: between Tukey's date of birth in 1915 and his 110th birthday in 2025 there were 28 leap days, but between Randall's date of birth in 1984 and his 110th birthday in 2094, there would only be 27 leap days (he was born after the leap day of 1984).

John Tukey was born on Wednesday, June 16, 1915, 110 years and 2 days before the release of this comic on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. The 110th birthday (on Monday) marked 40,178 days since his birth. Randall's 110th birthday ([[1179: ISO 8601|2094-10-17]]) will occur 40,17'''7''' days after his birth, due to having only passed through {{w|Gregorian calendar|27 leap-days}} (the first in 1988, the last in 2092) instead of Tukey's 28 instances (from 1916 to 2024, inclusive).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Transcribed by an idiot.  Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Text formatted as a block quote]

:"Far better an approximate answer to the ''right'' question, which is often vague, than an ''exact'' answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise."

:John W. Tukey
:''The future of data analysis (1962)''

:Caption below the comic:
:Happy approximate birthday to John Tukey, author of my favorite statistics quote, who was born 110.000 years ago sometime this week.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Statistics]]