Editing 2696: Precision vs Accuracy
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by BARACK OBAMA IN A CARDBOARD BOX. 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 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; it is possible for a statement to 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 even more confused. | This comic parodies the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision' with a table. {{w|Accuracy and 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; it is possible for a statement to 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 even more confused. | ||
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|Barack Obama has 4 legs | |Barack Obama has 4 legs | ||
β | |Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a {{w|tetrapod}}, but as a primate, his ancestors' forelimbs evolved into arms and hands | + | |Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a {{w|tetrapod}}, but as a primate, his ancestors' forelimbs evolved into arms and hands, and like other humans, he does not generally use them for locomotion, but to manipulate his environment, thus this is highly ''in''accurate. |
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|Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs | |Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs | ||
β | |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. (From a strict logician's point of view, this could however be considered a vacuously true statement.) |
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|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 | ||
β | |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. |
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