Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 07:35:47 -0700 (PDT) From: "Brian N. Handy" <handy@sag.space.lockheed.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: "Julian H. Stacey" <jhs@FreeBSD.ORG>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG, platforms@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: speed test Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.96.970817073115.24181C-100000@sag.space.lockheed.com> In-Reply-To: <19970817150033.65486@lemis.com>
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On Sun, 17 Aug 1997, Greg Lehey wrote: >On Sat, Aug 16, 1997 at 12:42:09PM -0600, Warner Losh wrote: >> In message <199708161005.MAA02831@desk.jhs.no_domain> "Julian H. Stacey" writes: >>> What does "3-sigma" mean in English ? >>> (I'm English not American, perhaps others were puzzled too ?) >> >> Three standard deviations away from the average. Generally used to >> connote being on the cutting edge. > >That's a rather arbitary interpretation, isn't it? What about the >trailing edge? Yes, 3-sigma means we're talking something that's statistically 99.[99...7]% out of the normal range, or "3 standard-deviations away". Oh, one more piece of the puzzle -- the Greek symbol sigma is typically used to represent the standard deviation of a measurement. So if you play xgalaga all the time and your average score is 100 points with a standard deviation of 10, you are "3-sigma" out if you score 70 or 130. I think. (Hey, this is stats. I hate stats.) Happy trails, Brian
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