1/2 of all state schools have no girls sitting physics A level

[Himalaya]

Just listening on the radio.

Thoughts? Experience? Ideas?

I know, I didn't do stats or biology to any level of qualificationand it didn't sound right to me when the case was reviewed ... I am sure doctors now study some medical statistics in their course or in preceding A levels.

What's the link between probability and statistics? I did probability as part of my A-level maths, but did not study "statistics." I therefore presumed they were different...

Or is there only a link when you are confused, as per the cot death cases?

Now I'm confused and intrigued. I wish someone had taught me a bit about statistics!

Probability in the mathematical sense is the coin-flipping, dice rolling sort of thing. You can calculate the chance of 5 heads in a row, that sort of thing. One aspect of statistics applies probabilities to the real world to anwer questions such as 'what is the probability that this experimental result is just chance'. I found this which I think explains quite well (though at some length).

Probability is about prediction; you don't need any data to do probability.

Statistics is about observation; you can't do any statistics without data.

That's a very good way of putting it, MrA, though the word 'probability' is used also in relation to statistics eg the probability that a result is meaningful if its within 2 or 3 sigma or whatever. Or the probability of a smoker having a heart attack by age Y is X whereas for a nonsmoker its Z - that sort of thing.

Oh, the question was what is the link whereas my answer was what is the difference!

The link is uncertainty or variability.

Probability is about the prediction of events the outcome of which is uncertain or variable.

Statistics is about the observation of events which exhibit uncertainty or variability.

MrA are you an actuary?

I'll have a go at explaining from the perspective of a scientist who uses statistics but is not a statistician! If am doing an experiment to see the effect of something e.g. to see if mowing my lawn increases the number of dandelions, I would collect data (count the number of dandelions) before mowing and then after mowing. I would then use an appropriate statistical test on my data. Many of these tests are run on computers, so it will also work out the probability of differences between the two sets of data being due to chance or not. Scientists work on a probability of 5% being significant - this meaning that there is only a 5% probability that differences between the 'before and after' data occurred due to chance and therefore, there is a 95% probability that the differences are real and significant. If you get a probability greater than 5%, you cannot say that differences in your data are real. Even if on paper it looks like there is a difference! Scientists are very cautious by nature (mostly..).

I hope that doesn't come across as a load of waffle . And obviously I don't really spend my days counting dandelions....

Mama - a name change to DandelionCounter may be required

Some of the posts on here are really informative! Hopefully when Science & Nature Club gets up and running I can link back to this thread which I think could provoke about five new discussions!

I noticed this morning on the breakfast TV that the (very attractive) lady who was talking about the forthcoming progamme on icebergs was described as a "Physicist and Oceanographer". :)

The guy she had been working with was described as "Diver and climber" (because those were the two roles he performed on the expedition) although I suspect he is also a scientist.

@harbingerofdoom no, I am an accountant by my degree was in Maths.

I'm afraid that Stats just wasn't taught at my DD's school. They were given a few work sheets and then put in for the exam.
When the admission's tutor at DD2's college looked over the GCSE results, he rather wryly said that it was a shame about the A!

There is definately some truth about how a sexist teacher can really put someone off a subject. I got an a* in physics at gcse, an a at as level, in the final year of a levels we had a new teacher. He was patronising sexist git and both myself and the other girl in my physics class of 15 had dropped out of the course within months. He basically ignored us, spent as little time as possible helping us before moving on to the boys, none of whom dropped out, and all of whom passed at c grade and above.