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51 Comments
- TEDChris, on 06/29/2009, -1/+30Here is just one instance of how our everyday sense of probability is screwed up. http://tr.im/qbMK
Much of politics, public health, marketing and economics depends on (or ought to depend on) understanding probability and statistics. Go, professor, go! Your idea rocks. - BryanG412, on 06/29/2009, -1/+19I completely agree. Our understanding of probability and statistics as a society is a disgrace.
- pennyfan87, on 06/29/2009, -0/+14This was an intersting talk, and its important to rethink education every once in a while.
But Calculus is too important to ditch. I find myself mapping my thoughts in derivatives and integrals every once in a while.
Like he said, its the language of science. And having a society with scientifically minded people is NOT a bad thing. - Stormwern, on 06/29/2009, -0/+8The problem is that calculus is the basis for alot of other things. It's hard to do anything in the field of physics without it, so you might have to drop that entire subject.
- TEDChris, on 06/29/2009, -1/+9Yup, he did something like that at TED two a couple years earlier. Big standing O. It's here:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/arthur_benjamin ... - TEDChris, on 06/29/2009, -0/+8Top right of page, you'll see a link that says "Open interactive transcript". You can read it or click the phrase you like and the video jumps right to that point.
- brokenex, on 06/29/2009, -0/+7"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Mark Twain
That being said I disagree with Mark Twain. I think that generally people have trouble grasping probabilities. Many of the things you learn in statistics run counter to how we intuitively think about the world. I think more education revolving around statistics would do us all a world of good. - oo7evan, on 06/29/2009, -0/+7I think he is trying to say that Calculus should still exist, but the baseline for ALL of society should be statistics, not calculus, since stats are more useful in everyday life and society overall. Scientists and engineers will always need calc.
- Shadic, on 06/29/2009, -1/+7I took Statistics my Sophomore year in College, and it was the only Math class I enjoyed since some time in Middle School. I'd love more emphasis on it in lower-levels of education, as it's far more applicable to everyday life than most everything else we're taught.
- spacemanspork, on 06/29/2009, -0/+6Prof Benjamin! I had him for Discrete Math years ago and he was a great prof. Class was actually interesting.
And he did magic tricks in class (most math based). The funniest thing was taking a psych class and finding him actually IN our psych book as an example of someone with crazy memory. - TEDChris, on 06/29/2009, -0/+4Well I'll be. You're right. Not posted yet. They're on every other talk. This one... real soon now. My bad.
- Eskinsaurus, on 06/29/2009, -0/+4Arthur Benjamin is one hell of a mathematician: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/arthur_benjamin_ ...
I've heard stories of him from friends at harvey mudd, he definitely knows what he's talking about. - CanadianRealist, on 06/29/2009, -0/+4This example is covered in another very interesting TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_donnelly_shows_how_ ...
Here's the description:
Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly reveals the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics -- and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials. - radioactive21, on 06/29/2009, -0/+4"People can come up with statistics to prove anything. 40% of all people know that." -Homer
- Maynza, on 06/29/2009, -2/+5I hated statistics so much and I am someone who enjoys math.
- pbrocoum, on 06/29/2009, -0/+3As a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PwnvqGEHoU
- nrayko, on 06/29/2009, -0/+3that's true for the 5% of students who actually want to learn. They'll take both Calc and Stats because it interests them.
What he's going at are the kids that don't see how math benefits them AT ALL after school. Getting 95% of those students (many who will go straight into the workforce) to see the relevance is what's key.
Higher level statistical though processes and formulations are used everyday, unlike calculus (given that you don't work in the specific fields that require calculus). - lebruf, on 06/29/2009, -0/+3He also teaches the Math Video Program offered by The Teaching Company (via bittorrent)
He's super dorky, likes performing magic tricks, and generally gets WAY too much of a kick out of a subject as boring as math, but hell, I would've loved for him to be MY math teacher when I was bored senseless in High School. - Subduction, on 06/30/2009, -0/+3Ah, thanks. It just became a "checking my sanity" thing towards the end...
- absaroke, on 06/29/2009, -0/+3Saw him at RSA '08 doing a mental math demonstration it was a great show. He was squaring 4 and 5 digit numbers in his head, building magic boxes, and some other cool math stuff.
- Subduction, on 06/29/2009, -0/+2Sorry, not trying to be difficult, but I don't see that link at all. I looked at in it Chrome + Firefox, I registered, and even searched the page for "Transcript" and got nothing.
Again, sorry, but could you help me by being more specific about where it is on the page?
Thanks. - bobartig, on 06/29/2009, -0/+2Um, why would you need calculus for time management? Hell, I can do that with a sheet of graph paper. Sales in grocery stores? That's entirely discrete. It's greater than, less than, and a bit of plotting - oh look statistics!
Calculus is the mathematics of continuous rates of change and the infinite. Time is arguably continuous, but there is no way to consider it with such granularity in time management.
Trust me, I'm a fan of Calculus, having taken 4 semesters of it in college (ok 2 semesters would be called Analysis..) and a physics degree to boot, which is just more applied calculus. But for everyday life? You couldn't even come up with two practical applications of calculus. - crimson117, on 06/29/2009, -0/+2Ken Robinson also did a TED talk about how to fix education.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_say ... - Subduction, on 06/29/2009, -0/+2Just for reference, this is what I see in my browser. Very sorry if I'm overlooking something obvious...
http://tinypic.com/r/258111j/5 - kaelyiesta, on 06/29/2009, -0/+2Agreed. It wasn't until my 3rd year of college that I realized the value of probability and statistics as a genuine branch of mathematics. I had always thought it was just vague handwavy ***** prior to some of my 300 math courses on the subject. I had to get a minor in mathematics just to get an appreciation for the subject. Thankfully I did, and now I love it. Unfortunately, many who don't choose the same focus won't be exposed to any of this and that is not the right way to present this subject in our society.
- euldq, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1I never understood statistics, until I learned the right way: the Bayesian way. Suddenly, it wasn't a bunch of meaningless recipes, it was theoretically grounded in probability theory, and made a lot of sense. The standard way stats is taught is terrible (and wrong). Check out the works of E.T Jaynes for some great comparisons.
- whyteeford, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Did you watch the video? Benjamin specifically said that of course calculus is relevant to certain fields and absolutely students should learn it, but if you aren't going into those fields he feels (and a point of which I agree) that you would be better served learning and understanding Statistics as it has far more practical life applications.
- bobartig, on 06/29/2009, -0/+1I thought you were going to link to the monty hall problem, much simpler to set up, just as hard to find anyone who know the correct answer.
- burgerkinghorn, on 09/02/2009, -0/+1That's 97.7%. You were using a Z-score of 1.685 < 2 std.dev's above the mean.
- sulthernao, on 06/29/2009, -0/+1Statistics are only a lie if you don't understand it (which sadly enough means it is a lie to most people).
- LaughingMan89, on 06/29/2009, -0/+1You probably ought to have taken a probability course instead; I've noticed statistics courses tend to be application oriented (which can throw off mathematically minded types) whereas probability courses tend to be theory oriented.
- hsbsitez, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1One a side news: Billions of people continue to live in poverty conditions, generations after generations.
- Paigelil, on 06/29/2009, -0/+1He is one of the first teachers you get when you go to Mudd, and with good reason. He can explain almost anything in a way that is interesting and make sense. Everyone should learn calculus, true, but I agree that statistics should be emphasized in high school, not as a possible elective but as a required mathematics course.
- okayokayokay, on 06/29/2009, -0/+1http://www.lowb.org/alan/frink/audio/Frink-Carry_T ...
- Drakoi, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1sweet, if we teach every highschool kid about risk, there's going to be a lot more idiots playing online poker.
- donotclickjim, on 06/30/2009, -0/+12 standard deviations from the mean means 95.4% of your data falls to the left and right of your mean (assuming a normal distribution)
Let the critics begin... - sponeil, on 06/29/2009, -0/+1Everyone who likes math hates statistics. That's because people who enjoy learning math hate being told "just memorize these formulas". We want to know why the formulas work and we want everything to logically fit together.
LaughingMan89 - A lot of science/engineering majors are required to take both, so it's not always a matter of choosing one vs. the other. - DaNuKaSAN, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Property value fluctuation in real estate.
Abstractly the models are no different from the same models we use to modelling liquid flow. Except here instead of the topology of the river bed and the properties of the fluid, we are looking at a flow of capital and its effect on population flow. People move around. You won't necessarily stay in the same house for the rest of your life. We can plot the most likely general course a system will follow.
Just because some elements are discrete doesn't mean we can't extrapolate their evolution to a point over a certain amount of time. And that level of abstraction requires calculus. - MRavioli, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Hot damn, I love TED.
- donotclickjim, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1I think Benjamin Disraeli said that. Mark Twain said "Figures don't lie, liars figure."
- TEDChris, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1And now it's fixed! Look for the red link.
btw, if you possibly can watch the talk instead of reading the transcript. The latter is definitely quicker... but it's more persuasive, more compelling to see the real human in action. - donotclickjim, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1"Statistics are like bikinis.
What they reveal is suggestive,
but what they conceal is vital."
- Aaron Levenstein - Subduction, on 06/30/2009, -0/+1Thanks Chris, that's great.
And I definitely watch the ones in which I have a direct interest, but there are a few more tangential lectures that I otherwise wouldn't have time for that it will be great to be able to skim.
Thanks again. - Hefelumpman, on 06/29/2009, -1/+157% of buried treasure remains undiscovered.
- DaNuKaSAN, on 06/29/2009, -1/+1I fail to see how he can claim that calculus cannot be applicable to any everyday system.
What about time management? Rate of sales in grocery store? I'm sure that would be very useful in not spending uselessly...
But even then, calculus is just as important to statistics as it is to anything else. The moment we start considering how a system would evolve over an infinite amount of time, we need calculus.
How can we understand seeing if a coin toss is fair for instance? - bobartig, on 06/29/2009, -2/+2Thoughts mapped in derivatives and integrals? I think you didn't understand the material.
We are bombarded from every direction by limitless information now, much of it numerical or statistical in nature. The fact is, the vast majority of people are ill-equipped to even understand this information that they encounter every day because they don't understand things like statistical significance, standard deviations, sample sizes, regressions, etc. Calculus would be meaningless to expand on their understanding in these matters. - thankyousir, on 06/29/2009, -2/+1meh, I think school systems basically already do this. I know that most people who don't want to take AP Calculus take AP stats instead. and in pre-calc you get very little calculus, it is mainly just more advanced algebra. As long as schools have a good selection of AP courses, kids are all set IMO
- Subduction, on 06/29/2009, -4/+2The problem with these TED lectures is that they're fascinating, and I really want the information, but a video speech is perhaps the least efficient way of transmitting information online. Having to go at their pace, unable to read at my own, makes me skip a lot of these even though they seem interesting.
They should routinely offer transcripts, or at least the ability to play the video at 2x or 3x speed. - friendlykiller, on 06/30/2009, -2/+0err who actually doesn't know what 2 standard deviations from the mean means o.0? I learnt it last year...
- danydral, on 06/29/2009, -5/+1Probablity simply tells us the chances of something to happen or not happen. it not a sure thing you lamer
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