SMS scnews item created by Duncan Sutherland at Tue 29 Mar 2011 1159
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Expiry: 31 Mar 2011
Calendar1: 31 Mar 2011 1300-1400
CalLoc1: New Law, Seminar room 030
Auth: duncans@p80714.pc.maths.usyd.edu.au

# SUMS: Fitzpatrick -- How probability can definitely save your life

The SUMS talk for this week will be from Matthew Fitzpatrick, he has kindly provided the
abstract below:

Abstract: One of the greatest abuses of mathematics in scientific research (and life in
general) is the abuse of probability and statistics.  It is something that everyone
needs to understand yet nobody can get their head around.  The reason is that
probabilities need to be defined for each context! Thus, there is a philosophical side
to statistics, which leads to many heated debates, sometimes leading to people BECOMING
statistics! I will talk about some instances where understanding probabilities can help
you and if you’re good, there will be some youtube clips!


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