Author Archives: statswithcats

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About statswithcats

Charlie Kufs has been crunching numbers for over forty years. He retired in 2019 and is currently working on Stats with Kittens, for people interested in statistics who have not yet taken Stats 101, and the second edition of Stats with Cats, for people who have taken Stats 101 and want to use statistics at work or in their life.

Resurrecting the Unplanned

Even if you took a class in statistics or another form of data analysis, you probably didn’t hear about frankendata. Frankendata is created when data, collected by different people, at different times and locations, analyzed with different procedures and equipment, … Continue reading

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Tales of the Unprojected

We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or describe how you had the wrong idea … Continue reading

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The Data Scrub

Garbage in, garbage out is a saying that dates back to the early days of computers but is still true today, perhaps even more so. If the numbers you use in a statistical analysis are incorrect (garbage), so too will … Continue reading

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Perspectives on Objectives

Conducting a statistical analysis can be like traveling to a foreign country that you’ve never been to before. You had better have a map and some idea of what you want to do there or you might end up wasting … Continue reading

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Assuming the Worst

If you’re going to be poking around data looking for patterns and anomalies, you should be aware of the fundamental requirements you need to fulfill, or at least assume you fulfill. Consider this. All models make assumptions, an evil necessity … Continue reading

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It was Professor Plot in the Diagram with a Graph

You probably were taught how to graph data in high school. Depending on your work, you may frequently plot data yourself or look at graphs prepared by others. Even if you don’t use graphs on your job, you may run … Continue reading

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It’s All in the Technique

You can’t understand your data unless you control extraneous variance attributable to the way you select samples, the way you measure variable values, and any influences of the environment in which you are working. Using the concepts of reference, replication … Continue reading

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The Measure of a Measure

If you can measure a phenomenon, you can analyze the phenomenon. But if you don’t measure the phenomenon accurately and precisely, you won’t be able to analyze the phenomenon accurately and precisely. So in planning a statistical analysis, once you … Continue reading

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The Heart and Soul of Variance Control

You can’t understand data without controlling the variance. You can’t control variance without understanding the data. Variance Doesn’t Go Away By Ignoring It In an ideal universe, your dataset would contain no bias and only the natural variability you want … Continue reading

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The Right Tool for the Job

Statistics are like power tools. If you know how to use them, they are incredibly valuable and fun to use. They help you do your job better, more thoroughly, and more quickly. But if you are careless, they can cause … Continue reading

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