Editing 1781: Artifacts
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The comic shows [[Cueball]] presenting data that was probably gathered in research | + | The comic shows [[Cueball]] presenting data that was probably gathered in research. Cueball seems to have made some kind of mistake in either the statistics or the measurement of the undefined subject of his research, thus his data results in many outliers. The word artifact is a wordplay with two meanings. It is either an {{w|Artifact_(archaeology)|artifact such as the Holy Grail}} (as in ''Indiana Jones'') or a fault in your experiment, where you (usually accidentally) influence the measurement with your equipment or unanticipated environmental factors. These are also called {{w|Artifact_(error)|artifacts}}. |
− | + | Indiana Jones is (often humorously) [http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24595365/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/indiana-jones-would-make-bad-archaeologist/#.WG1XuflViig cited] as being a bad archaeologist. He sometimes destroys the area he is looking for artifacts in, which would count as not handling artifacts right. | |
− | An example of an | + | An example of an artifact is the measurement of the force between two charged metal spheres (Coulomb force), where the potential of unearthed nearby objects influences the measurement, thus causing an artifact. Artifacts have occurred before in xkcd, as in [[1453: fMRI]], where getting into the MRI machine induced unintended effects, such as thoughts of claustrophobia. |
− | The title text refers to the entire data set being "outliers." In statistics, an outlier is an observation point that is distant from other observations | + | The title text refers to the entire data set being "outliers." In statistics, an outlier is an observation point that is distant from other observations, so by definition it is impossible for ALL data points to be outliers. Nevertheless, we can infer that the accusation is a jab at the fact that the data points are all over the place; a good example of such chaotic data can be see in [[1725:_Linear_Regression]]. |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[Cueball | + | :[Cueball presenting a line graph] |
:Cueball: The data clearly proves that- | :Cueball: The data clearly proves that- | ||
− | :Offscreen voice: Are you Indiana Jones? | + | :Offscreen voice: Are you Indiana Jones? Because you've got a lot of artifacts there, and I'm pretty sure you didn't handle them right. |
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
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