Handout week 20
AP Stats course Teacher: Hans van der Zwan Handout week 20
Literature Starnes D. S., et al. (2015). The Practice of Statistics (5th ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman and Company/BFW.
Handout per lesson
Lesson 1 Sun 2022-05-15
Study Hall
Lesson 2 Mon 2022-05-16
Topic: Developments in the World in Data continued
Today you are watching two more video’s from gapminder.org. The first one is a TED talk from Hans Rosling in India in 2009. There is overlap with the video from last week, but the main focus in this video is on the development of Asian countries.
The second video is a TED talk from Anna Rosling. In this video she explains how she uses thousands of photo’s to visualize the differences and the similarities between people in different countries over the world. Her theorem is that if incomes are comparable life styles are as well.
The data behind the visualizations in the video’s are available om https://gapminder.org.
Class activities
Watch TED TALK Hans Rosling 2009 in India (16 minutes)
Watch TED TALK Anna Rosling in 2017 (12 minutes)
Go to https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street. Compare how people in different countries (e.g. Jordan, South-Korea and USA) with a comparable monthly income (e.g. between $2,500 and $ 5,000 per month) live.
Lesson 3 Tue 2022-05-17
Topic: Comparing World Countries on Dollar Street
Yesterday you were introduced to Dollar Street. The class today is a workshop in which you use the Dollar Street Website to compare different aspects of living in different countries.
Class activities
- Make groups of 2 or more students.
- See Worksheet WSweek20.
Lesson 4 Wed 2022-05-18
Topic: Correlation is not Causation
It’s well known that correlation is not the same as causation. There are many funny examples about correlation that is not caused by causation. There are also more serious examples that have led to erroneous assumptions, especially in health care. In the videos we come across both types of examples.
Warning. The saying ‘Correlation does not mean Causation’ can also be misused to deny causation. So did lawyers who work for tobacco companies. In the second video, the speaker briefly refers to this.
Figure 1 Nice Example 
Class Activities
Watch TED TALK Delft Ionica Smeets (6 minutes) In this video Ionica Smeets, a Dutch mathematician, discusses some examples of confusing correlation and causation.
Watch Top 5 Reasons Correlation Does Not Imply Causation (15 minutes) In this video the speaker explains how variables can be statistically correlated although there is no causal effect between them.
Lesson 5 Thu 2022-05-19
Topic: Statistical paradoxes
Paradoxes can be fascinating.
Example of a Mathematical Paradox Theorem: all natural numbers are interesting. Proof: Assume the theorem is not true. Let S be the set of all non interesting numbers. Let s be the smallest number in S. Then s is the smallest natural number that is not interesting. Whoh, that is interesting. That makes it an interesting number.
Example of a Paradox in the Bible Titus 1: 12-13 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars.” This testimony is true.
The paradox is in the last sentence: “this testimony is true”. Because if his testimony is true and “All Cretans are always liars”, then this profet himself is always a liar as well. That means that what he says is not true so that his testimony is not true. So if his testimony is true, then it is not true.
By the way, the citation comes from a poem written by Epimedes. When Epimenides wrote “all Cretans are liars,” he was using a literary technique called hyperbole, or over-exaggeration, in order to make a point about Cretan society. He was saying Cretan society is characteristically dishonest. It would be like a Chinese writer saying “the Chinese are atheists.” Obviously not all Chinese people throughout the world are atheists, but, generally speaking, modern Chinese society promotes atheism. Paul, as a highly educated man, he was using this parabole, to make his point. For furhter reading see this website.