Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/09/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Eric, > >Are you a statistican? I am not, but often quite small samples are >valid. I am not a statistician either, but in my experience with statistics in the sciences, it is a generally accepted principle that smaller samples are not reliable when making generalizations about a much larger group. It is similar to a person pulling ten marbles out of a bag and assuming that since five of the marbles removed are blue, 50 percent of the marbles everywhere in the world are blue (when those might, in fact, be the only five blue marbles anywhere). When you examine only a few dozen cameras out of tens of thousands produced, you are not eliminating the possibility that many LUGers just had the bad luck of getting faulty cameras out of a mostly good lot or that there are other factors involved. > >But I think the intent was to get a feeling of the experiences of the >listmembers regarding this. > In that context, I think the survery was a great idea. But it should be left at that.