Educational Tools
Outside reading on probability, randomness, and the normal distribution behind the Galton Board.
Statistics is the most widely applied of all mathematical disciplines and at the center of statistics lies the normal distribution, known to millions of people as the bell curve, or the bell-shaped curve.
Read PDFThe Galton board or quincunx is a fascinating device that provides a compelling demonstration of one the main laws of statistics.
Read Full ArticleMath in Motion: Playing with a desktop Galton Board
Read Full ArticleThe Galton Board — A Desktop Probability Machine.
Read Full ArticleA Galton board (AKA a bean machine) demonstrates probability by allowing balls to drop through an array of pegs through which they have a 50/50 chance of going left or right at each point.
Read articleThe idea of a Galton board is to demonstrate the bell curve. Dropping balls on pegs arranged in a way such that when the ball is dropped it has a 50/50 chance of going left or right. Generally speaking there are more paths going toward the middle and thus produces the bell curve, or binomial distribution, or normal distribution of balls in the slots below the pegs.
Read ArticleThe Galton board (also called a Quincunx) is a physical model of the binomial distribution which beautifully illustrates the central limit theorem.
Read articleFOR MANY YEARS economists, statisticians, and teachers of finance have been interested in developing and testing models of stock price behavior. One important model that has evolved from this research is the theory of random walks.
Read PDFThe normal distribution is a continuous probability distribution that is symmetrical on both sides of the mean, so the right side of the center is a mirror image of the left side.
Read ArticleWhile I was studying Statistical Physics at the university, I was fascinated by the ability of statistics to simplify and explain the chaotic processes in a smart approach.
Read ArticleThe normal distribution is the most important probability distribution in statistics because it fits many natural phenomena.
Read ArticleEvery statistician wants now and then to test the practical value of some theoretical process...
Read PDFThis paper considers the question of how Francis Galton came to devise the quincunx, a pin-board that simulates the effect of a large number of Bernoulli trials to yield an empirical normal curve.
Read ArticleRandom walk can be described as certain simplification of phenomena commonly observed in, for example, chemistry and physics.
Read PDFThis article by Stephen Fienberg reviews the last three and one-half centuries of statistics and probability largely through the author's overview and synthesis of seven recent books on the topic.
Read ArticleAustin Peay State University statistics instructor Sam Ligo for years has used his woodworking skills and engineering know-how to build mathematical models – real-world 3D representations of the math – to help his students learn.
Read articleThe quincunx, a contraption with balls rolling through a triangle-shaped arrangement of nails, was invented to illustrate the binomial distribution and the central limit theorem for Bernoulli random variables
Read articleThe quincunx was invented by Sir Francis Galton in 1873 to demonstrate binomial distributions. During the last 125 years it has been used to illustrate the laws of the binomial and the normal distribution.
Read articleVisualizing what a collection of independent, converged (normally distributed) MCNP tally means looks like is interesting, informative, and reinforces the need for creating a confidence interval from an MCNP tally result.
Read articleHere is a fun little IFA GB math story that I stumbled into with a surprising and sinister conclusion.
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