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Queueing theory: The science of waiting in line
The math behind how people wait in line
John D. Cook
Companies come to us for help data analysis and data privacy. Clients have included Amazon, Google, Microsoft, law firms, start-ups, and smaller businesses.
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Why does FM sound better than AM?
Frequency modulation (FM) is more robust to noise than amplitude modulation (AM) because static itself is primarily a form of amplitude modulation.
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Why isn't everything normally distributed?
Heights are normally distributed because height is determined by many factors. But why are other things with many inputs not normally distributed?
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Planets evenly spaced on log scale
The distances to the planets are fairly evenly distributed on a logarithmic scale, not only in our solar system but in extrasolar systems as well.
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How is portable AM radio possible?
If AM radio antennas were as long as a quarter wavelength of the carrier signal, you'd need an antenna as long as a football field.
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No funding for uncomfortable results
Latanya Sweeney blew the whistle on how easy supposedly de-identified data could be re-identified. Her results were not well received.
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Gravitational attraction of stars and cows
One attempt at rationalizing astrology is to say that the gravitational effects of celestial bodies impact our bodies. To get an idea how hard the stars and planets pull on us, let's compare their gravitational attraction to that of cows at various distances. Newton's law of gravity says that the gravitational…
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Latitude doesn’t exactly mean what I thought
There are two kinds of latitude: geocentric and astronomical. On a perfect sphere, they're the same, but on an oblate spheroid like Earth they're different.
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Selection bias and bombers (2008)
During WWII, statistician Abraham Wald told the RAF to add armor where it didn't seem planes needed it. But he was right.