Average Age on PF: What's the Answer?

[nismaratwork]

Its always about money, huh...

I suppose you could try sexual favors for the mentors, but I'd guess that wouldn't go over well.

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

Nevermind...

 

[jhae2.718]

I took the gaussian of the first four categories, then the gaussian of the last five categories, divided both by 2 and then added them together! Sure, it's hardly rigorous, but I haven't taken even the most basic of statistics courses.

Results would probably be better if we had a finer discretization of the age ranges.

 

[Char. Limit]

Results would probably be better if we had a finer discretization of the age ranges.

I suppose I could create a separate poll for each category, where you list your exact age. If the mentors don't ban me for flooding the GD forum.

 

[jhae2.718]

It's probably not necessary, though; it's not like we're trying to get our results into a journal or anything...

 

[Char. Limit]

It's probably not necessary, though; it's not like we're trying to get our results into a journal or anything...

Says you. I like my distributions to be as accurate as possible, thank you very much.

I just want to ask any mentor who sees this, would you ban me for creating 8 different polls, one for each age group, at once?

 

[jhae2.718]

PF needs a journal...

You know, what does it say about us that we're spending Saturday evening doing analysis over a poll on an internet forum?

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

I like my distributions to be as accurate as possible, thank you very much.

Seconded. I like to be accurate with a lot of things.

 

[micromass]

Allright, here are the results:

Arithmetic mean: 34.03
Geometric mean: 29.31
Harmonic mean: 25.45
Modus: 21
Median: 30

Variance: 278.91
Standard Deviation: 16.7

Kurtosis: -0.55
Skewness: 0.54

Enjoy!

 

[jhae2.718]

How are you assuming ages are distributed within the discrete groupings?

 

[Char. Limit]

My curiosity got the better of me. Here's the first exact poll, for 15-34 year olds.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=484645

 

[micromass]

How are you assuming ages are distributed within the discrete groupings?

I think it's standard to take the midpoints of ranges. I should reread in my stat book on how to deal with this situation...

I really want a PF journal! Imagine the breakthroughs we could publish

 

[jhae2.718]

I really want a PF journal! Imagine the breakthroughs we could publish

Why 1 != 0.999...
Division by zero: a new indeterminate form and valid arithmetic operation in R

 

[Char. Limit]

Poll 2, for 35-54:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=484647

 

[micromass]

Why 1 != 0.999...
Division by zero: a new indeterminate form and valid arithmetic operation in R

Don't forget "Irrational numbers don't exist" and the various (dis)proofs for FLT and Riemann Hypothesis...
And maybe a humor section with most funny insults like "smug and condescending cheapo"...

 

[Char. Limit]

Aaaaand Poll 3, for 55 and up!

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=484649

Now to wait a bit for results to come in.

 

[micromass]

I actually want multivariate polls where you can see the correlation between age, gender, scientific interest, music taste, political preference and general happiness...

But I doubt PF will let me do that

 

[rhody]

I made a crude graph of the bimodal distribution we have here. I checked, and the integral over R of this function IS 1, so it's a proper pdf. And I think it's pretty interesting.

Nice job Char,

I have a reasonable explanation for the drop in membership or the lack of reporting for the mid 30 somethings to the mid 40 somethings, I know because I have been there and have the T-Shirt to prove it. People in this range are:

A: busy with building their careers and/or
B: raising a family which requires attention not conducive to being a good PF contributor
C: more free time = more PF time at a young age and once children are raised and out of the house

Rhody...

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

And maybe a humor section with most funny insults like "smug and condescending cheapo"...

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=475840
It got locked right away.

 

[jhae2.718]

So, who should be on the editorial board of the PF journal?

 

[Char. Limit]

So, who should be on the editorial board of the PF journal?

I should.

 

[micromass]

I should.

I'm glad that you would put your name under articles like 1!=0.999... and "irrational numbers don't exist"

 

[Char. Limit]

I'm glad that you would put your name under articles like 1!=0.999... and "irrational numbers don't exist"

Well, they obviously don't. If they existed, then we could rationally calculate them and estimate them. But we can't, because they're irrational. Therefore, all numbers are rational.

 

[jhae2.718]

It would be funny if there was a Journal of Crackpottery.

 

[Math Is Hard]

It would be funny if there was a Journal of Crackpottery.

There's always

http://www.crank.net/

 

[jhae2.718]

There's always

http://www.crank.net/

I'd forgotten about that, thanks!

Edit: crank.net has PF listed as "A resource where you can discuss cranks or crankism.":

 

[nismaratwork]

I'd forgotten about that, thanks!

Edit: crank.net has PF listed as "A resource where you can discuss cranks or crankism.":

Nobody accused them of being especially bright.

 

[Steppn]

What if the cat is curious but isn't satisfied?

What if the cat merely 'thinks' it's a cat, but is in fact, a cat it is not...?

 

[turbo]

What if the cat merely 'thinks' it's a cat, but is in fact, a cat it is not...?

Too much introspection for a cat. It will easily pass its "curiosity kills" threshold at that level. Cats are dull and unintelligent because all the smart ones have been weeded out.

 

[Steppn]

Too much introspection for a cat. It will easily pass its "curiosity kills" threshold at that level. Cats are dull and unintelligent because all the smart ones have been weeded out.

Ahhh, 'catural selection'.

 

[nismaratwork]

What if the cat merely 'thinks' it's a cat, but is in fact, a cat it is not...?

The universe implodes in a clap of contradiction and pique.

 

[Steppn]

The universe implodes in a clap of contradiction and pique.

I wonder if that makes Verschränkung obsolete?

 

[nismaratwork]

I wonder if that makes Verschränkung obsolete?

Yeah, we'd go from Geselshaft to uber Gemeinschaft (squish) pretty quickly given a universal implosion.