A trivial but funny thing happened in class today. At the moment I am taking a statistics in psychology class. We learn about things like experimental vs non experimental approaches to studies and how to tell a good study from a bad one.
Our specific topic today was histograms. Histograms are a way of tabling and graphing data. A graphical version looks like this:
With a table looking a lot like:
Our particular table had five columns, number of things remembered ranging from 11-16, (F)renquency of the numbers, (C)umulative (F)requency with each category adding to the one below it, % of total for each different category, and (C)umulative % for the sum of the categories.Not having a calculator on my, I did the calculations for percent and cumulative percent in my head. My math was accurate. What turned out to be less than accurate was my counting of the individual numbers lined up one by one on the projection screen. In short, I goofed by adding one too many to the 16 category and one too few to the 12 category. This naturally messed up all my percent calculations.
What does this have to do with the title? Near the end of the class as I realized my mistake, I happened to glance at the paper of the person to my immediate left. To my surprise, she had the exact same percent numbers as I did, while having the correct amount in each category. This left me with two options:
1. She had made a math mistake that lined up completely with my numbers despite her having the correct category amounts and no method of getting those incorrect calculations I could fathom
2. She decided to make her life easier by copying the calculations of the guy next to her who seemed confidant enough to do it all in his head.
I must admit, it kind of made my day. Or hour anyways.
To my fellow students, let this be a lesson to you. Just because you're copying the answers of the person next to you doesn't mean you'll get it right. Cheaters and slackers beware.
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