Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
7/31/24 9:13 a.m.

Just saw this mentioned on social media, and it gave me enough of a giggle that I thought it'd be worth sharing here.

https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

It's a website that has a bunch of graphs with spurious correlations (essentially, two variables that look related but aren't). Here are a few of my favorites so far:

TurnerX19
TurnerX19 UberDork
7/31/24 9:14 a.m.

Hilarious...I don't need that rabbit hole....

Beer Baron 🍺
Beer Baron 🍺 MegaDork
7/31/24 9:30 a.m.

Trading with Focus - A pirate shortage caused global warming - Stockhead

Duke
Duke MegaDork
7/31/24 9:35 a.m.

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

That one's the classic, isn't it?

 

Recon1342
Recon1342 UltraDork
7/31/24 10:01 a.m.

Only on GRM...

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter)
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
7/31/24 10:09 a.m.
Recon1342 said:

Only on GRM...

I think that's how I already know about this in the first place 

NickD
NickD MegaDork
7/31/24 10:44 a.m.

RevRico
RevRico GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/31/24 10:55 a.m.

I was expecting sandwiches, due to recent trends. 

Sadly 

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
7/31/24 11:00 a.m.

In reply to RevRico :

Well now I'm not sure if the relationship between sandwiches and myself is spurious...

Beer Baron 🍺
Beer Baron 🍺 MegaDork
7/31/24 11:30 a.m.

But you also get data of events that actually *are* related, but not causally.

Researchers in New York City did a study on ice cream sales and murder ...

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/31/24 11:55 a.m.
NickD said:

What I got from that one is that the cheese marketing board is probably very happy with a 10+% increase in per capita cheese consumption between 2000 and 2007.

RX Reven'
RX Reven' GRM+ Memberand UberDork
7/31/24 4:05 p.m.

Yep, I teach an eight day crash course on engineering statistics and I pull up this site about every other month when I get to the "seven ways to do bad science" part of my lectures.

Correlation does not prove causality...it can be used to predict but not necessarily control.

NickD
NickD MegaDork
7/31/24 4:52 p.m.
Keith Tanner said:
NickD said:

What I got from that one is that the cheese marketing board is probably very happy with a 10+% increase in per capita cheese consumption between 2000 and 2007.

I didn't even notice that. Damn, the early 2000s were really a strong era for cheese!

J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
7/31/24 4:53 p.m.

You know, the more I eat Chipotle, the more I wonder about going into outer space. I see a correalation.

wearymicrobe
wearymicrobe PowerDork
7/31/24 5:01 p.m.

552: Correlation - explain xkcd 

 

 

Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.

RX Reven'
RX Reven' GRM+ Memberand UberDork
7/31/24 5:10 p.m.

In reply to wearymicrobe :

See also...

www.lacan.upc.edu/admoreWeb/wp-content/uploads/201...

wearymicrobe
wearymicrobe PowerDork
7/31/24 8:10 p.m.
RX Reven' said:

In reply to wearymicrobe :

See also...

www.lacan.upc.edu/admoreWeb/wp-content/uploads/201...

I spend a good chunk of time working with a predictive AI group. trust me I KNOW> 

RX Reven'
RX Reven' GRM+ Memberand UberDork
7/31/24 9:13 p.m.

In reply to wearymicrobe :

Whenever I demonstrate the Box-Cox transformation to my students I hear George Carlin's old skit about the seven words you can't say on TV.

prodarwin
prodarwin MegaDork
7/31/24 11:49 p.m.

CJ
CJ GRM+ Memberand Dork
8/1/24 12:45 a.m.

Had a stats prof in college who rolled out that there was a direct correlation between the birth and suicide rates in New York City. 

Of course it wasn't a causal relationship... maybe

J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
8/1/24 8:36 a.m.
prodarwin said:

Definitely can't get killed by geese on other planets. Just saying.

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