Editing Talk:1877: Eclipse Science

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*There is a tendency among non-scientists to underestimate the certainty of scientific or statistical results.  Some examples are "you can't teach evolution as settled science because it's only a ''theory''" and more recently "this poll only sampled a thousand adults, which is 0.03% of Americans, so it's meaningless because we have no idea what the other 99.97% think".  So scientists are expected to keep verifying and re-verifying fairly basic results. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 16:29, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
 
*There is a tendency among non-scientists to underestimate the certainty of scientific or statistical results.  Some examples are "you can't teach evolution as settled science because it's only a ''theory''" and more recently "this poll only sampled a thousand adults, which is 0.03% of Americans, so it's meaningless because we have no idea what the other 99.97% think".  So scientists are expected to keep verifying and re-verifying fairly basic results. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 16:29, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
 
:That last one is hilarious, for reasons I doubt you realize.  Some of us here know how to get a proper population sample--and, well, with that poll?  I don't even know where to ''start'' on the potential sources of error.  'Too small' should appear on the list several times, though, since a lot of the sources of error can be controlled for by simply adding to your sample.  (Yes, yes, changing your sampling techniques will also do it, but it's just plain '''''easier''''' to add more people, so you start there.) This is actually part of why being able to replicate results matter--plus, the training in how to do it properly does give you a pretty good idea how to rig your poll to produce the desired results, and what to watch for when reading others' research. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.130|108.162.237.130]] 21:39, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
 
:That last one is hilarious, for reasons I doubt you realize.  Some of us here know how to get a proper population sample--and, well, with that poll?  I don't even know where to ''start'' on the potential sources of error.  'Too small' should appear on the list several times, though, since a lot of the sources of error can be controlled for by simply adding to your sample.  (Yes, yes, changing your sampling techniques will also do it, but it's just plain '''''easier''''' to add more people, so you start there.) This is actually part of why being able to replicate results matter--plus, the training in how to do it properly does give you a pretty good idea how to rig your poll to produce the desired results, and what to watch for when reading others' research. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.130|108.162.237.130]] 21:39, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
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::Reasons you doubt I realise?  What are you on about?  The point is, the fraction of the population appearing in your sample doesn't need to be very large to have a margin of error below five percent.  Margin of error for a representative sample of 1000 from an ''infinite'' population is 3.2 percent - the hard part is to get a representative sample of adults rather than a biased one.  And then you go on about "that poll"... your meaning is very unclear. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 23:17, 29 August 2017 (UTC)
 

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