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Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 03:06:28 -0400
From: "Gary T. Corcoran" <garycorc@idt.net>
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To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
CC: "Christopher R. Bowman" <crb@Glue.umd.edu>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG,
        platforms@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: speed test
References: <199708161005.MAA02831@desk.jhs.no_domain> <Pine.SOL.3.95q.970816162837.1497A-100000@divot.eng.umd.edu> <19970817150137.64846@lemis.com>
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Greg Lehey wrote:

> > If I remember correctly 3-sigma is esstentially a short-hand for 1 in a
> > million.  It derives from statistics where given a gaussian (bell)
> > distribution, the probability of anything outside 3 sigma (sigma is a ususally
> > the standard deviation) from the average is like .999997 or something
> > close to that, which is basically 1 in a million.  Motorola was big into
> > this basing their near zero defect quality project on this catch
> > phrase.
>
> Didn't Moto have a 7-sigma goal?
>
> Greg

You're close - as I recall, they had a 6-sigma goal, and I believe that is what
the above actually refers to...   A previous poster gave what is probably the real
definition of 3-sigma.

Gary