Quiz: Why the statistics professor sued the baker...

[Harald]

There once was a statistics professor. Every morning he bought his breakfast rolls at the local bakery. But then he retired, got bored and started weighing the rolls before he had breakfast.
He discovered that sometimes the rolls were below the weight the baker advertised. So one day he told the baker he would have to sue him if he didn't stop selling underweigth rolls.
The baker said it would never happen again, the professor continued weighing the rolls and in deed never again found a roll that was to light. He still sued the baker though - why?

No, the first one to give the correct answer does not get a roll

[Dave Frederickson]

The baker advertises the average weight of the rolls. The rolls he sells to the professor are the above average weight rolls. The professor sues because of the below average weight rolls he sells to other customers.

Consider the baker lucky. He could have had his ear nailed to the door!
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/...ead-of-12/

[Harald]

(03-18-2016 08:32 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  The baker advertises the average weight of the rolls. The rolls he sells to the professor are the above average weight rolls. The professor sues because of the below average weight rolls he sells to other customers.

Exactly! And how did he find out? I guess that is easy now..

[d b]

(03-18-2016 08:32 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Consider the baker lucky. He could have had his ear nailed to the door!

Worse if he sold small biscuits to the Piranha Brothers.
(in case you've forgotten, see the lase 20 seconds of Ethel the Frog )

[Dave Frederickson]

(03-19-2016 01:06 AM)Den Belillo (Martinez Ca.) Wrote:  Worse if he sold small biscuits to the Piranha Brothers.
(in case you've forgotten, see the lase 20 seconds of Ethel the Frog )

Thanks, Den, for confirming that "What's Your Favorite Monty Python Skit?", or "What's Your Favorite Scene from The Holy Grail?", are perfectly acceptable topics for Not remotely HP Calculators threads.

Let's see ... Dead Parrot, Nudge Nudge, Upper Class Twit of the Year ...

Did you see Spamalot?

Dave

[Jim Horn]

Good heavens - that was covered in a classical Math puzzle book in the '50s or thereabouts.

[Spoiler alert] The statistician did a histogram of number of rolls purchased versus their weight. When he saw that it formed just the upper tail of a classical normal distribution, that proved that he was getting only rolls picked from a population which averaged below the advertised weight.

Now, *my* question - what was the name of that book (grunty face here, trying to remember...)?

[dxaren]

(03-19-2016 08:05 PM)Jim Horn Wrote:  Good heavens - that was covered in a classical Math puzzle book in the '50s or thereabouts.
.
.
Now, *my* question - what was the name of that book (grunty face here, trying to remember...)?

Gamow/Stern 1959!
Don't know the english title, but should be something like ""Math Quiz".
Swedish title was: Matematiska tankelekar" => google translate: Mathematical mind games.

[Dave Frederickson]

(04-18-2016 11:03 PM)dxaren Wrote:  Gamow/Stern 1959!
Don't know the english title, but should be something like ""Math Quiz".

Perhaps Puzzle-Math. Here's the pdf.

[Jim Horn]

Wow! Thank you, dxaren and Dave! That's exactly the book I fondly read in the Deerfield, Illinois library circa 1967. Who would have imagined back then that it would be available via the Web - or that anything like the Web would come? Of course, the "Bread Rationing" puzzle therein is exactly about this problem.

And the .pdf - it's terrific to be able to read it (and keep it) again. Lots of fun -