Department of Statistics Seminar
Cockerham Lecture
North Carolina State University

presents

Dr. Bradley Efron

Stanford University

"How Wrong Can I Be? (and what does "plus or minus" really mean?)"

ABSTRACT

Newspaper story: "In a poll of 400 Californians, 62% favored U.S. involvment in Kosovo and 38% were opposed. The poll had a sampling error of plus or minus 5%". How can we know how wrong the poll might be? This talk is devoted to an intuitive explanation of "plus or minus" that avoids formulas and advanced statistical calculations. The explanation is given in terms of bootstrap techniques, a computer-based method for analyzing the errors in even very complicated situations.

Friday, December 3, 1999

3:45 - 4:45 pm

124 Dabney Hall

Refreshments will be served on the second floor of Dabney Hall (left of Room 222) at 3:00 pm.