qui la sua apparizione storica, la' altro
https://archive.org/details/naturalinheritan00galt pp. 62-65
| charm | fascino, incanto, meraviglia |
|---|---|
| to revel | divertirsi |
| thicket | boscaglia |
| funnel | imbuto, fumaiolo |
| topsy-turvy | upside-down |
| to scamper | scorrazzare, zampettare, ... |
| quincunx | an arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth at its centre, used for the five on a dice or playing card, and in planting trees. |
| to dart | guizzare, scattare |
NdR questo primo pezzo non parla direttattamente del quinconce, ma sostiene (enfaticamente) l'importanza del considerare le distribuzioni di frequenza.
It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence.
Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of man.
The Curve of Frequency, and that of Distribution, are convertible : therefore if the genesis of either of them can be made clear, that of the other becomes also intelligible. I shall now illustrate the origin of the Curve of Frequency, by means of an apparatus shown in Fig. 7
that mimics in a very pretty way the conditions on which Deviation depends. It is a frame glazed in front, leaving a depth of about a quarter of an inch behind the glass. Strips are placed in the upper part to act as a funnel. Below the outlet of the funnel stand a succession of rows of pins stuck squarely into the backboard, and below these again are a series of vertical compartments. A charge of small shot is inclosed. When the frame is held topsy-turvy, all the shot runs to the upper end ; then, when it is turned back into its working position, the desired action commences. Lateral strips, shown in the diagram, have the effect of directing all the shot that had collected at the upper end of the frame to run into the wide mouth of the funnel. The shot passes through the funnel and issuing from its narrow end, scampers deviously down through the pins in a curious and interesting way ; each of them darting a step to the right or left, as the case may be, every time it strikes a pin. The pins are disposed in a quincunx fashion, so that every descending shot strikes against a pin in each successive row. The cascade issuing from the funnel broadens as it descends, and, at length, every shot finds itself caught in a compartment immediately after freeing itself from the last row of pins. The outline of the columns of shot that accumulate in the successive compartments approximates to the Curve of Frequency (Fig. 3, p. 38), and is closely of the same shape however often the experiment is repeated. The outline of the columns would become more nearly identical with the Normal Curve of Frequency, if the rows of pins were much more numerous, the shot smaller, and the compartments narrower ; also if a larger quantity of shot was used.
The principle on which the action of the apparatus depends is, that a number of small and independent accidents befall each shot in its career. In rare cases, a long run of luck continues to favour the course of a particular shot towards either outside place, but in the large majority of instances the number of accidents that cause Deviation to the right, balance in a greater or less degree those that cause Deviation to the left. Therefore most of the shot finds its way into the compartments that are situated near to a perpendicular line drawn from the outlet of the funnel, and the Frequency with which shots stray to different distances to the right or left of that line diminishes in a much faster ratio than those distances increase. This illustrates and explains the reason why mediocrity is so common.
If a larger quantity of shot is put inside the apparatus ...
Statistica. Insegnare. Le meraviglie delle statistiche.
ho incontrato questa citazione in un testo di statistica online incontrato casualmente
http://lamastex.org/courses/STAT459/CSEBook.pdf