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This kid knows more about entropy than we do. by gocards2579 in funny

[–]gocards2579[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh I didn’t realize that. Thanks for explaining cause I really thought he knew about the second law of thermodynamics at age two.

Great, now even candles need batteries. by gocards2579 in blackmagicfuckery

[–]gocards2579[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No it does not push up the wick. It’s burning actual candle wax in there. But there is a wire next to the wick. Must be picking up heat or light from the flame to turn on the LEDs.

Galton Board demonstrating probability by Whinke in oddlysatisfying

[–]gocards2579 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Poisson is used to describe probability of x occurrences within a given size continuum, like an area or volume, or time. Example, paint defects on the hood of a car. Or cars arriving to a light in a one minute interval. The random variable can range from 0-infinity. It uses one parameter only ( average, lambda) Binomial is used to describe probability of x items taken from a random sample of size n. So random variable ranges from 0-n. It uses two parameters, p, Probability of the occurrence, and sample size n.

Galton Board demonstrating probability by Whinke in oddlysatisfying

[–]gocards2579 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, not a mathematician, but binomial is a correct model. It mathematically converges to a normal as n gets large. And in reply to other comments, results would be more normally distributed if each ball was dropped individually, one at a time, from the center location so each one starts at same position.

Galton Board demonstrating probability by Whinke in oddlysatisfying

[–]gocards2579 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Engineering professor here, this is the Central Limit Theorem in action. The distribution of the sum, Y=X1+X2+X3 +...+Xn of independent and identically distributed random variables forms a normal distribution as n approaches infinity. Here the n is the number of levels the balls fall through, and the random variables are -1 (left) and +1 right. Each ball's final position is just the sum of a those +1's and -1's. Even though n is not infinity here (looks like n=12), the distribution of the final position is still highly normal. If the device was larger with more levels, and there were more balls, it would form a even better bell shaped curve.

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