Editing 2696: Precision vs Accuracy
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic parodies the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision' with a table. {{w|Accuracy and | + | {{incomplete|Further detail, sortable table? - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
+ | This comic parodies the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision' with a table. {{w|Accuracy}} and {{w|Precision}} are common concepts to be encountered in the scientific field and often students have issues with the differences between them. Accuracy concerns whether a statement is true, while precision concerns how detailed it is; a statement can be one but not the other. The comic explores this concept by comparing {{w|Barack Obama}}, former President of the United States, with {{w|cat}}s. Confusingly, he measures different statistics of both Barack Obama and cats (sometimes measuring them in terms of cats) leaving the unwary reader just as confused as before. | ||
Being precise is typical of calculations that roll out an excess of significant digits, often in the form of trailing decimals. Precision is lowered by using more rounded figures, or merely being comparative, but largely unaffected by whether the original values used were accurate or even correct. Accuracy is a cumulative function of the accuracy given to the intermediate values used for any calculation, and can be degraded by using figures that are themselves in some way inaccurate or imprecise. One part of confusion between the two is because being too precise usually decreases accuracy. | Being precise is typical of calculations that roll out an excess of significant digits, often in the form of trailing decimals. Precision is lowered by using more rounded figures, or merely being comparative, but largely unaffected by whether the original values used were accurate or even correct. Accuracy is a cumulative function of the accuracy given to the intermediate values used for any calculation, and can be degraded by using figures that are themselves in some way inaccurate or imprecise. One part of confusion between the two is because being too precise usually decreases accuracy. | ||
− | The numbers mentioned in the top row (high precision) of the table all use exactly the same digits, dictating that a full five digits of ''precision'' are used in them all. The | + | The numbers mentioned in the top row (high precision) of the table all use exactly the same digits, dictating that a full five digits of ''precision'' are used in them all. The highest accuracy it is a number that's very accurate and precise (see table). For the medium accuracy the number is an anagram of the 1st entry, giving a value that is reasonable but would be overly exact, whilst the low accuracy number is just a repeat of the first entry's digits with a shifted decimal but clearly at the wrong scale. For the latter, he replaces the thousands separator with the decimal point, perhaps as a visual pun. |
The title text compares Obama's and cats' enjoyment of playing with cardboard boxes. While cats are known to do this,{{citation needed}} we don't know whether Obama does. | The title text compares Obama's and cats' enjoyment of playing with cardboard boxes. While cats are known to do this,{{citation needed}} we don't know whether Obama does. | ||
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{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
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|High | |High | ||
|Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours | |Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours | ||
− | | | + | |Within an hour, this is the official length of {{w|Barack Obama}}'s 8-year presidency, including 2 {{w|leap year|leap days}}. |
|- | |- | ||
|High | |High | ||
|Medium | |Medium | ||
|Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats | |Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats | ||
− | |The accuracy would depend on the mass of the cats in question. Also a human's mass can vary by a few pounds in a small amount of time as meals are consumed, resources are used in metabolism and wastes are eliminated, and thus this may be overly precise due the margin of error in both the mass of cats and the mass of Mr. Obama | + | |The accuracy would depend on the mass of the cats in question. Also a human's mass can vary by a few pounds in a small amount of time as meals are consumed, resources are used in metabolism and wastes are eliminated, and thus this may be overly precise due the margin of error in both the mass of cats and the mass of Mr. Obama. |
|- | |- | ||
|High | |High | ||
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|Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall | |Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall | ||
|A highly precise (5 significant digits) measurement, but far from his actual height, published as 6'1". | |A highly precise (5 significant digits) measurement, but far from his actual height, published as 6'1". | ||
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|- | |- | ||
|Medium | |Medium | ||
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|Medium | |Medium | ||
|Barack Obama is 6'1" | |Barack Obama is 6'1" | ||
− | |While | + | |While not very precise, that is the former president's published height. |
− | |||
|- | |- | ||
|Medium | |Medium | ||
|Low | |Low | ||
|Barack Obama has 4 legs | |Barack Obama has 4 legs | ||
− | |Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a | + | |Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a tetra-pod, but as a primate, his two forelimbs have been modified into arms and hands, and like other humans, he does not generally use them for locomotion, but to manipulate his environment. |
|- | |- | ||
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|Medium | |Medium | ||
|Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat | |Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat | ||
− | |Again, this will depend on the cat | + | |Again, this will depend on the cat, but in general, true. |
|- | |- | ||
|Low | |Low | ||
|Low | |Low | ||
|Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs | |Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs | ||
− | |This statement has low accuracy, as Barack Obama owns a four-legged dog named Sunny, but is not known to have owned a cat, much less one with more legs than normal. | + | |This statement has low accuracy, as Barack Obama owns a four-legged dog named Sunny, but is not known to have owned a cat, much less one with more legs than normal. It also has low precision, as "hundreds" could reasonably range from 200 to 900. |
|- | |- | ||
|Low | |Low | ||
|Unsure | |Unsure | ||
|Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun | |Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun | ||
− | |Barack Obama has never publicly jumped in and out of cardboard boxes for fun,{{ | + | |Barack Obama has never publicly jumped in and out of cardboard boxes for fun,{{citation needed}} but the possibility that he does in private exists. |
|} | |} | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[ | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
− | : | + | |
− | + | :[A table with 3 rows and 3 columns] | |
− | + | ||
− | + | :;High precision | |
− | + | ::High accuracy: Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours | |
− | + | ::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats | |
− | + | ::Low accuracy: Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall | |
− | + | ||
− | + | :;Medium precision | |
− | + | ::High accuracy: Most cats have 4 legs | |
− | + | ::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama is 6'1" | |
− | + | ::Low accuracy: Barack Obama has 4 legs | |
− | + | ||
+ | :;Low precision | ||
+ | ::High accuracy: Most cats have legs | ||
+ | ::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat | ||
+ | ::Low accuracy: Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Statistics]] | [[Category:Statistics]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] | [[Category:Comics featuring real people]] | ||
[[Category:Cats]] | [[Category:Cats]] |