The Great Pains & Accuracy Tour

beedge - 09:51pm Jun 25, 2001 EST
Barrett Golding

TFH

it's 7pm and still 107degrees in Pierre SD.
got 1000+miles on bikes, and an unquenchable thirst.
i'll just post this DQ reply for now:

 
From: "David Quammen"
To: "Barrett Golding" <beedge@well.com>
Subject: Re: precision v. accuracy

Barrett,
Thanks for your message. There's one important piece missing
from my little argument as you describe it: the number of deer
that are actually there. I'd put it this way: You look at a
herd of ELEVEN deer. If you say, "There are about ten deer,"
that's accurate but not precise. If you say, "There are twelve
deer," that's precise but not accurate. You can't make the
judgment that some statement's accurate or inaccurate (whether
precise or not), unless you know what's actually there.
Have fun, good pedaling. DQ

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