Ever wonder how scientists decide if their findings are just by chance or real?
Image: Philippe Giabbanelli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Glossary of logic
Ever wonder how scientists decide if their findings are just by chance or real?
Imagine you're tasting different ice cream flavors to see if one tastes better than the others. You ask friends to rate them, and some say one is better than others.
You want to know if the taste difference isn't just random. You calculate a 'P-value' to see if the taste difference is statistically significant, not just random preferences.
Example
If 10 friends rate vanilla higher than chocolate, and you calculate a P-value of 0.05, it means there's only a 5% chance this taste difference is random.
Remember this
The P-value tells you if the taste difference is likely real or just random chance.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Educational content, not financial advice.
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