2 thoughts on “Advice on buying a kitchen scale (for the candy weighing demonstration)

  1. This is a very interesting demo, and this phenomenon clearly occurs in the real world (aka, "what I do").

    For example, if you are sampling classrooms within a school system, shoppers or stores within a retailer, or similar entities that vary in their measure of size, there is a tendency to pick ones that are "representative". Representative classrooms are smarter. Representative shoppers spend more than average.

    Sometimes it's a matter of sampling (systematic sampling being the best SIMPLE technique to avoid this). Sometimes it's a matter of filtering the universe ahead of time.

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