Tech Tip #5 Statistics Without Math

[Major Ho]

Holy flaming dung balls! My last exam on friday was on this very subject. Bell curves, confidence intervals, standard deviation wasnt included in here was it? But wow, I actually understand this mumbo jumbo.

Edit: NM, yes it indeed it was included somewhere in there.

[Vegeta]

Neat-o.

Major was gonna go try that on plywood lol.
*pop pop pop pop pop*
*thinking*
*hm*
*lets see that splt there looks like it was in the 8 range....*

Will the tech tips already posted on AO be put in APG first or will you start with fresh ones just for us?
We need an online tech class.. like.. hmm.. interactive.. where players can ask questions to The Man himself.
A interactive chat would be neat. Dunno how you could get that many ppl in a chat room.

[the123]

Well, now I guess i'm going to have to break down and get a subscription to APG now.

Very informative.
Thanks Tom!!

[UTLadiesMan]

NNNOOOO!!!!!!

I took the AP Stat test 2 years ago. I got a 5. Within 10 minutes of walking out the door, I forgot all of the formulas, but now I'm trying to remember them, and taking out my old notes.... thanks alot...

[Mild 7]

God I hate math!

[e1ement5]

Great tip Tom! I went through the full gambit of Statistics course when I got my masters, and dam I have to say its one of the better introductions I have read on the subject matter.

Also as a side note, the bell shaped cure, ie Gauss's equation is on the German 5 DM note along with a picture of Gauss. You've got to love a country that puts scientists, engineers, and artist on their money.

[RKL]

Element5 wrote

Also as a side note, the bell shaped cure, ie Gauss's equation is on the German 5 DM note along with a picture of Gauss. You've got to love a country that puts scientists, engineers, and artist on their money.

Better hurry if you want one. The Euro comes out on 01 Jan 2002.

[Vegeta]

They're switching all the way to Euro's? damn.
weell.. thats an easier trade to hard currency... if ya get my drift.. ahem.

[M-a-s-sDriver]

There is one thing that can be misleading when translating the circular hit pattern to a bell curve.
Say out of 20 shots, every single ball hit low and to the left, say in the 4th ring out. Using this method you will actually get a double-hump curve. That curve obviously denotes inaccuracy, but on the target is would be the gun you would want above any other, having perfect accuracy. As long as you know the aiming correction you can compensate accordingly.
Just an observation, and there are probably a few more examples out there too.
Brent Jackson, PFB.

[RKL]

Having re-read Tom's tip, I believe the term he should be using is precision ie the repeatability of an event.

After getting accuracy and precision reversed in my first interview after grad, my new boss had a simple explanation that stuck with me all this time.

Precision is repeatability. If you throw ten darts and they all land in the 4 segment, you are very precise.

If you have been aiming at the 20, you are not very accurate.

Having measured the precision of your shot pattern due to the barrel and paint combo, you need to adjust the aim point by the offset from original aim point to center of dispersion. I think Dury Dan did an article long ago on zeroing in.

Cheers

[BDEKLEJR]

Originally posted by UTLadiesMan
NNNOOOO!!!!!!

I took the AP Stat test 2 years ago. I got a 5. Within 10 minutes of walking out the door, I forgot all of the formulas, but now I'm trying to remember them, and taking out my old notes.... thanks alot...

this maybe off subject.........but isnt a 5 the best you can do on an AP exam?

[Chaos]

Well first off i'd like to say, this can be misleading, with paintball there are many more factors that come into play. The biggest ones being wind and gravity, since a paintball is a larger, gel filled ball, in comparison to a bullet (where this information comes from, to get the accuracy of a gun, like tom said this is what the military does), it is effected much more. Wind can change a paintballs course drastically, where as with a bullet its not as effected.

On a side note, MASSDRIVER - If you were using a rifle, I'd tell you to adjust your sight, in the world of paintball I wouldn't do this test aiming at a bullseye and testing your accuracy that way, i'd test the grouping of paint shot. Seeing how tight of a grouping you shoot would be easy to find with your example, just center the 'bullseye' of the circle chart to the center of your groupings, then run the test as already explained.

With me, I dont expect to hit the bulleye with my first shot in paintball, I expect to get a shot close THEN i adjust the gun in accordance of where my first shot went. Atleast thats when I play semiauto. So i'd say a tighter grouping would be the key factor there

[M-a-s-sDriver]

Exactly Chaos.
My post was only to make those reading this thread aware you can hide things in a bell curve, using the above method, that would be readily apparent in the circular model. Also note that to make the bell curve work you do not use only one circle, but a pattern of circles so that you could grade accuracy statistically, which is really the only way to find out how accurate paintballs are, because of thier inherent inaccuracy.
As for "zeroing in", that is a different matter entirely.
It is common when testing a real rifle or handgun for accuracy to simply fire a string of shots with the gun locked down just to get the tightest grouping possible. Look in some of the gun magazines and you will see thier shots all over the target, but grouped tightly.
You can then adjust your sights or scope to get you as close as possible to the central aiming point.
Brent Jackson, PFB.

[Miscue]

Bah. Ya guys are missing the point.

[M-a-s-sDriver]

My first shot may have missed the point, but statistically I hit the mark.

Sometimes I just kill myself. hehehe
Brent Jackson, PFB.