You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to view this clip - download Flash.
http://podcast.open.ac.uk/open2media/joyofstats/joy2.flv Copyright
The Open University
Believe me, there’s nothing boring about statistics. Especially today when we can make the data sing.
With statistics, we can really make sense of the world.
Join me on a fascinating journey to discover how, from crime to health, from language learning to the way science itself is conducted, the answers, the insights and yes the beauty lie in the stats.
The Joy Of Stats will take you on a fascinating journey into the world of statistics - and the remarkable power they have to change our understanding of the world we live in.
Swedish academic superstar Hans Rosling uses the power of statistics to change our understanding of global development over the last 300 years, and he'll be your guide through The Joy Of Stats. From the bowels of some of the world's greatest supercomputers to the frontlines of scientific discovery, Hans exposes the explosive growth of an extraordinary new method of understanding ourselves and our Universe.
Little did Darwin realise, as he puzzled over the numerical data he collected, that he was laying the foundations of statistics. Kevin McConway tells the... Watch now: Darwin and statistics
Understanding the ebbs and flows of the coastline is not just about observation but also about analysing data. Data is one of those words we... Read more : Introducing data
What an excellent programme! The Joy of Stats isn't something that would normally grab me, but I came across it by chance last night (luckily near the start of the programme) and it had me gripped. It was most stimulating and thought provoking and I'm sure will attract others into the subject area. The presenters were good. I particularly like the way they were introduced with an associated key fact and the programme clearly demonstrated how technology can bring stats to life Thanks very much and well done!
Great programme this evening - just one problem. The section on showing the relative scale of numbers made a fundamental error - it put on the same figure a set of 'stocks' [total cost of Iraq war, global climate change fund] and 'rates' or amounts per year [UK deficit].
This is a very serious misundertanding throughout social and economic policy, as well as amongst the general population ... virtually no-one appreciates the difference, for example, between the UK's deficit £bn/year and its debt in £bn - and it is quite meaningless to display the two numbers on the same chart.
One of the commonest problems is that of 'false correlation' - the deficit is rising faster, so the debt is rising faster ... so if the deficit falls, the debt falls - right ? Wrong! .. it keeps rising, but at a slower rate. Same applies to CO2 emission and global warming - rising CO2 emissions leads to rising world temperatures, so cutting CO2 emissions = falling world temperatures, right? Wrong! It leads to still-rising temperatures, but [if we're lucky] at a slower rate. [In fact, even this is untrue, because there are 2 accumulating stocks in this system].
It's a shame that no-one ever seems to make this difference between stocks and flows explicit - and disappointing that an otherwise authoritative programme also gets this basic, and massively important, distinction wrong.
Kim Warren
(Personal detail removed by OpenLearn Moderator 15.07.11)
Copyright & revisions
Publication details
Originally published:
Tuesday, 16th November 2010
Last updated on:
Thursday, 22nd November 2012
Copyright information
Body text - Copyright: The Open University
Video - Copyright: The Open University
Audio - Copyright: The Open University
Feeds
If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?) Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.
