Posted by John Nichols on September 15, 2005 at 13:17:53 from 24.250.155.253 user Mcneacail.
I have been doing a statistical analysis of AR's titles in the SA series. The following observations need to be made in the sense of ensuring this is strict science about which Dick would approve.
1. The distrubution of title lengths is not normal Gaussian. I am sure that AR was not really considering a Gaussian solution when he thought of the titles.
2. If I had to hazard a guess I would say the distribtuion is Poissionian of some form.
3. If it was Gaussian for arguments sake then we could argue that WDMTGTS is an outlier - A bit like a mother giving birth to quads or quins. If it is an outlier then we could argue that it is discarded in the analysis.
4. As an example if Dick and SH had obtained the raw copper to material excavated rate of ounces per tonne and the numbers were identical to AR's title lengths then a prudent mining engineer would retest the sample that provided 7 ounces per tonne. (7 ounces is about 200 grams)
5. We can not retest nor can we ask AR the obvious question "Why did you
create a title that gave away the main plot and create such confusion in the hearts and souls of many in the years to come?" Of course we would probably go fishing and I would learn the meaning of life.
6. Of course a simple first moment about the zero point gives us an accurate measure of the mean of these numbers irrespective of the distribtion. The answer is 2.5.
7. If the distribtion is Possionian then I am not entitled to discard the WDMTGS title and so we have a different problem. How to describe the standard deviation. At this point I will stop and consider my texts at work on this point. I am pretty sure I know the answer but I need to check.
As a complete aside "Schroder is one of the most lovable characters created by Schultz in the Peanuts series." I was attempting a hidden compliment and obviously it failed. I apologize Peter for the perceived slight.
The Viking is however relevant to AR because of his reading of the earlier book on the island.
John