Just found an article on the BBC Magazine site that got the little grey cells intrigued.
It discusses spurious statistics, "numbers" if you like, and strange correlations.
Quote from Tyler Vigen (author of the site in question)
It discusses spurious statistics, "numbers" if you like, and strange correlations.
Quote from Tyler Vigen (author of the site in question)
View his site HERE if you like playing with numbers/statistics."I've seen a lot of headlines, especially sensationalist ones - 'Scientists find a connection between x and y,' he says."
"In a lot of those situations there might be a correlation, but it's really important for us to be critical about whether there's a causal mechanism."
One of the golden rules of statistics is that correlation does not equal causation. Just because the movements of two variables track each other closely over time doesn't mean that one causes the other.