Contributing to the Minitab Blog

I was involved in finding the mistake mentioned in this three part Minitab blog series. Part three covers my analysis of the data. 

Lessons from a Statistical Analysis Gone Wrong 

The original Minitab challenge was to use statistics to compare the horse American Pharaoh with previous Triple Crown contenders.

While I am still not sure of the validity of using this data set (Kentucky Derby race finishing times) in a Capability Analysis*, it does illustrate the need for getting good data (not truncated data) and the need to question transformations before using them.

The Minitab blog is still one of my favorite statistical blogs.

 

* as my horse loving wife pointed out, the owners and jockey run the race to beat the other horses, not to set a new record. So the data may not be independent and/or from the same distribution. Regardless, Big Red is still impressive after all these years.