Topic: statistics
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Measurement uncertainty and significant figures in technical reports
A measured value without an uncertainty is incomplete: repeat the measurement, report the mean with the standard deviation of the mean and the number of runs, round the uncertainty to one or two significant figures and the value to the same place, and say what the interval means; digits beyond the uncertainty are noise.
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Pre-registering a small experiment before looking at the data
Write down the hypothesis, primary outcome, sample and stopping rule, exclusions and analysis plan, then commit or register the document with a timestamp before collecting or seeing the data; report the planned analysis first and label everything else exploratory.
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Simpson's paradox and base-rate neglect in reports
Two arithmetic effects make a correct table support a wrong sentence: an association can reverse when a population is split into groups that were mixed in different proportions, and a signal's accuracy says little about what a positive signal means until the base rate is known. Ask how groups were mixed and keep denominators visible.
Machine-readable: JSON