Ben Greenman’s Museum of Silly Charts

May 12, 2011 6:22 PM

Ben Greenman’s Museum of Silly Charts.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse (14 comments total)

+/-5% variation in digit count for 10,000 digits of pi?

I wouldn't have expected that.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:34 PM on May 12, 2011

"The Great Gatsby has more g’s than f’s"
Well I never.
posted by unliteral at 6:51 PM on May 12, 2011

I love these. I wish there were more.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 6:55 PM on May 12, 2011

This is my all-time favorite nonsense infographic.
posted by -jf- at 7:39 PM on May 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think Ben understands what the phrase "percent chance" means.

I like the fire one.
posted by painquale at 8:03 PM on May 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

+/-5% variation in digit count for 10,000 digits of pi?

I wouldn't have expected that.

Because I'm teaching Stats, I have to point out that there's about a 40% chance of seeing the observed distribution of digits, even if they are evenly distributed ["What is chi-square goodness of fit test, Alex."]
posted by benito.strauss at 8:32 PM on May 12, 2011

This one is my favorite of this genre.
posted by mosk at 9:00 PM on May 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

I totally came down to the comment box just to mention the chi-squared test. damn you, benito.strauss!
posted by madcaptenor at 9:26 PM on May 12, 2011

These are really fun, thanks.

This, however, is a bit more my style.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 10:17 PM on May 12, 2011

Even if it's more of a pun than a functioning chart joke, this always springs to mind first in threads like these.
posted by Freon at 6:54 AM on May 13, 2011

madcaptenor, don't feel too bad. I'm about to go through some 60 exams dealing with χ2 tests. I'd gladly trade away that job along with the glory of first χ2 mention in this thread.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:40 AM on May 13, 2011

benito.strauss, I went through those exams on Tuesday. (And I just submitted the grades for them right now and am awaiting the e-mails from students saying they need better grades.)
posted by madcaptenor at 9:44 AM on May 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something somehow ironic about students in a statistics class lobbying their professor for better grades.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 2:17 PM on May 15, 2011

I can't quite put my finger on it either. But this typically happens in courses in my department that have a lot of students who are trying to get into the undergraduate business major, because:
1. our business school cares a lot about students' GPAs (this I know for sure), and
2. future businesspeople are more likely to have an "everything is negotiable" mindset.
(Seriously, though, on some level I don't blame them for trying. I mean, I'd have to be a real asshole to lower their grades, so if they don't expect to take any of my classes in the future they have very little to lose.)
posted by madcaptenor at 8:47 PM on May 15, 2011