My Day Begins
A day in my life is much like yours. So perhaps the best way to begin to understand how statistics is important to your everyday life is to follow me at least through my early morning activities. This certainly can be greatly expanded, and I have in fact written a whole section in a text that attempts to describe a broader day. But for now, here is some insight beginning with the alarm.
My Day BeginsI begin my day by waking up with an alarm clock that was set the previous night. I often change the exact time it is set to go off depending on how much time I thought I would need in order to get ready the following morning. I notice that sometimes I awaken before the alarm goes off (is it because I don't like the noise). Often I lie there thinking "can I stay in bed another ten minutes." "How much time do I really need?"
The first thing I do is weigh myself and record my weight. That is a whole story in itself, which I will discuss later because it is a good example of how I moved from just mentally keeping track of my weight to using some of the formal approaches that I teach. Off to the bathroom. This morning I am taking a shower, (which affected the time I had set the alarm to go off). I have assumed it usually takes me about 10 minutes to shower - at least that is my crude estimate. I keep saying to myself I ought to bring a watch into the bathroom. We could actually do some experiments and take real measurements.
How much time do you take in a shower or bath? Are there arguments in your household over this Issue? Does the hot water run out because someone takes too long in the shower? This use to happen in our house.
I turn the water on and try to tell if it is the right temperature. After waiting for the water to get hot I adjust it by feeling the water on my hand. So my hand has become a kind of temperature measuring instrument. Of course, when I actually step into the water other parts of my body may quickly tell me they don't agree with my hand - they may consider the water too hot or too cold (this brings back memories of a Peanuts cartoon of Snoopy jogging and different parts of his body having a running conversation). At some point the water seems just right but it never stays perfectly constant. Sometimes I end up having to adjust the temperature or jump away from the water, perhaps when someone flushes a toilet.
I have a recurring dandruff problem and keep trying different types of shampoo. I haven't been able to resolve how important it is to apply the shampoo, rinse, and then apply it again. Is the two applications just a way to get me to use it up twice as fast? I sometimes think such questions as how much shampoo is enough, or does it depend on how much hair I have or its length. One bottle says "normal to oily" and another is labeled "normal to dry". I often wonder what is meant by normal? .
What kind of soap should I use? I have noticed that some types of soap seem to make my skin feel different than others.
After finishing the shower I take a towel. Some towels feel great but do a lousy job drying, while other towels do a great job drying but do not seem like they should.
Should I blow dry my hair? And what should I use to keep it from getting messed up later. Should I have used a conditioner.
Shaving comes next. At one time this was a major concern of mine, and I tried a whole series of different types of shaving blades and electric shavers. I believed that a blade gave me a closer shave but when I used a blade I always seemed to get a cut. So I drifted over to an electric razor, but they did not seem to give me as close a shave. To stay clean shaven all day and evening I needed to shave more than once a day. I finally solved most of the problem by growing a beard. Then I only had to shave a small portion of my face and trim my beard every few days. Additional benefits seem to be the amount of time I saved and that I did not get cut. Now I don’t have so much of a problem since my beard has begun to go the way of my hair. Recalling back to how I actually evaluated shaving, I would say my approach was probably very flawed. I never really recorded anything about how good the shaves were. Of course part of the problem is determining what is meant by "closeness" of a shave. Before I could really compare different razors or methods I should have decided how to measure the result of shaving and then I should have kept track of the results of shaving. How could I check smoothness? By the back of my hand? Or is it visual appearance I should be concerned with. I can also get someone else's opinion. Do you think my wife and I both have the same opinion on when my face is smooth.
Think of all the issues here. Does the shave depend on how much has grown? What about the stuff used to "soften" the hairs? Does temperature have anything to do with results? Think about all the possibilities of what you could be keeping track of as you make choices regarding how you shave and with what device.
How often should a razor be changed? How would you measure sharpness? Since I periodically cut or nicked myself, I could also keep track of the types and severity of the cuts. And what works to stop the bleeding?
Do I get a better shave after taking a shower. I haven't really done any formal experiments, but I have noticed that there seemed to be a real difference in how easy it is to shave depending on whether I shower before shaving. This is the essence of an experiment where I could evaluate the two methods and make a decision about the performance. Right now all the information is in my head, including mental measurements and rough analyses, all of which seem to tell me that there is a real difference.
OK - hopefully you are getting the idea. If you would like to see more of this I will be adding a link to a longer article.
My Day BeginsI begin my day by waking up with an alarm clock that was set the previous night. I often change the exact time it is set to go off depending on how much time I thought I would need in order to get ready the following morning. I notice that sometimes I awaken before the alarm goes off (is it because I don't like the noise). Often I lie there thinking "can I stay in bed another ten minutes." "How much time do I really need?"
The first thing I do is weigh myself and record my weight. That is a whole story in itself, which I will discuss later because it is a good example of how I moved from just mentally keeping track of my weight to using some of the formal approaches that I teach. Off to the bathroom. This morning I am taking a shower, (which affected the time I had set the alarm to go off). I have assumed it usually takes me about 10 minutes to shower - at least that is my crude estimate. I keep saying to myself I ought to bring a watch into the bathroom. We could actually do some experiments and take real measurements.
How much time do you take in a shower or bath? Are there arguments in your household over this Issue? Does the hot water run out because someone takes too long in the shower? This use to happen in our house.
I turn the water on and try to tell if it is the right temperature. After waiting for the water to get hot I adjust it by feeling the water on my hand. So my hand has become a kind of temperature measuring instrument. Of course, when I actually step into the water other parts of my body may quickly tell me they don't agree with my hand - they may consider the water too hot or too cold (this brings back memories of a Peanuts cartoon of Snoopy jogging and different parts of his body having a running conversation). At some point the water seems just right but it never stays perfectly constant. Sometimes I end up having to adjust the temperature or jump away from the water, perhaps when someone flushes a toilet.
I have a recurring dandruff problem and keep trying different types of shampoo. I haven't been able to resolve how important it is to apply the shampoo, rinse, and then apply it again. Is the two applications just a way to get me to use it up twice as fast? I sometimes think such questions as how much shampoo is enough, or does it depend on how much hair I have or its length. One bottle says "normal to oily" and another is labeled "normal to dry". I often wonder what is meant by normal? .
What kind of soap should I use? I have noticed that some types of soap seem to make my skin feel different than others.
After finishing the shower I take a towel. Some towels feel great but do a lousy job drying, while other towels do a great job drying but do not seem like they should.
Should I blow dry my hair? And what should I use to keep it from getting messed up later. Should I have used a conditioner.
Shaving comes next. At one time this was a major concern of mine, and I tried a whole series of different types of shaving blades and electric shavers. I believed that a blade gave me a closer shave but when I used a blade I always seemed to get a cut. So I drifted over to an electric razor, but they did not seem to give me as close a shave. To stay clean shaven all day and evening I needed to shave more than once a day. I finally solved most of the problem by growing a beard. Then I only had to shave a small portion of my face and trim my beard every few days. Additional benefits seem to be the amount of time I saved and that I did not get cut. Now I don’t have so much of a problem since my beard has begun to go the way of my hair. Recalling back to how I actually evaluated shaving, I would say my approach was probably very flawed. I never really recorded anything about how good the shaves were. Of course part of the problem is determining what is meant by "closeness" of a shave. Before I could really compare different razors or methods I should have decided how to measure the result of shaving and then I should have kept track of the results of shaving. How could I check smoothness? By the back of my hand? Or is it visual appearance I should be concerned with. I can also get someone else's opinion. Do you think my wife and I both have the same opinion on when my face is smooth.
Think of all the issues here. Does the shave depend on how much has grown? What about the stuff used to "soften" the hairs? Does temperature have anything to do with results? Think about all the possibilities of what you could be keeping track of as you make choices regarding how you shave and with what device.
How often should a razor be changed? How would you measure sharpness? Since I periodically cut or nicked myself, I could also keep track of the types and severity of the cuts. And what works to stop the bleeding?
Do I get a better shave after taking a shower. I haven't really done any formal experiments, but I have noticed that there seemed to be a real difference in how easy it is to shave depending on whether I shower before shaving. This is the essence of an experiment where I could evaluate the two methods and make a decision about the performance. Right now all the information is in my head, including mental measurements and rough analyses, all of which seem to tell me that there is a real difference.
OK - hopefully you are getting the idea. If you would like to see more of this I will be adding a link to a longer article.