Statistics for you

[markjay]

BBC News - What are the chances of six double-yolkers?

 

[LTD]

Wish the BBC News would do something worthwhile with the money that we provide them with.

Double-yolked eggs FFS

They didn't even come up with an answer .....

 

[MOCAŠ]

I'm a big fan of More or Less - always interesting.

 

[markjay]

Wish the BBC News would do something worthwhile with the money that we provide them with....

I thought the Egg Yolks piece was spot on...

That's the sort of stuff we're paying them for...

 

[LTD]

That's the sort of stuff we're paying them for...

Eh ?

Can you please show me where on the BBC Charter that applies ?

It's no more than a quick debunk on linear statistical analysis. Nothing to do with news.

I doubt the story was true ...

 

[markjay]

....I doubt the story was true ...

What makes you say that?

 

[LTD]

What makes you say that?

Statistically it is unlikely to happen to anyone, even less likely somebody connected with the BBC.

 

[markjay]

Well... made up or not, I still think it's a nice story... I found it very entertaining.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Can you please show me where on the BBC Charter that applies?

Have you ever listened to More or Less, LTD?

It's educational in an entertaining way (if you like that sort of thing), and is a very pleasant way to pass half an hour. It may be of limited value to a proper statistician, but to those of us that only got as far as Statistics O Level...

True or not, the eggs can be seen as just a vehicle to demonstrate the principle involved in calculating the statistical probability.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Whoops! The BBC seem to have slipped up a little on the educational standards front. The iPlayer blurb for this edition of More or Less says:

Tim Harford on National Literacy Trust figures, the maths of supermarket price wars, eurozone statistics and the odds of cracking six double-yoke eggs in a row.

 

[NW_Merc]

Well... made up or not, I still think it's a nice story... I found it very entertaining.

You mean it was an eggcelent story.

However I suppose you would need to break lots of the eggs to find out, maybe make some omelettes rather than waste? Now that would be a cracking idea

 

[oldcro]

A nice change of news story from all the doom and gloom currently broadcast, although some have moaned already about such light heartedness.

 

[markjay]

A double-yoke:

 

[MOCAŠ]

A double-yoke:

I reckon you maid that up.

 

[trapperjohn]

I reckon you maid that up.

Come on MOCAS you are milking it now.

 

[grober]

Me I would be running a geiger counter over the 2 headed chicken that produced them.

 

[markjay]

Straight from Sellafield: