average Archives - Significance magazine

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Has English league football become less exciting?

Photo by Nathan Rogers on UnsplashBill Shankly, a former manager of Liverpool Football Club, once…

Statso, Julian Stander and Mario Cortina BorjaNovember 26, 2020

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The evolution of the endemic stage of the Covid-19 outbreak in Italy during summer 2020

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on UnsplashItaly was the first European country to suffer a…

Robbayes-C19November 5, 2020

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The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Italian mobility

Photo by David T on UnsplashThe pandemic of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) triggered by the SARS-CoV-2…

Francesco Finazzi and Alessandro FassòApril 16, 2020

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You can trust the polls in 2018, if you read them carefully

On the morning of 8 November 2016, many Americans went to bed confident that Hillary…

Josh Pasek and Michael TraugottSeptember 27, 2018

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An average understanding

In "The Shock of the Mean" (Significance, December 2017) I explained how, far from being…

Simon RaperDecember 5, 2017

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The joy of clustering

In April 2014, FiveThirtyEight published a statistical analysis of the paintings of Bob Ross. Journalist…

Samantha TynerNovember 11, 2015

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Who will win the Rugby World Cup?

As Yogi Berra, once said: ‘It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future’. Like…

Niven WinchesterAugust 27, 2015

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How do you measure disaster risk?

In September this year, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will come to an end…

Julia HallAugust 25, 2015

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How to identify goal scoring ability in football

The transfer market in football is a strange beast. For anyone who doesn't know how…

Ian McHale & Łukasz SzczepańskiAugust 19, 2015

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House prices: regional variations and the impact of Help-to-Buy

'House prices in England and Wales hit record high’ ran a headline from last month…

Oz FlanaganAugust 14, 2015

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Too many flats, not enough houses? The geography of London’s new housing

The UK is currently experiencing climbing property prices and a growing housing demand coupled with…

Alasdair RaeJuly 9, 2015

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Is India’s heatwave a freak event?

A heatwave over India that started on May 21 and has produced India’s highest recorded…

Hugo WinterJune 2, 2015

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(Un)representative democracy: where are all the female candidates?

Image: Catherine Bebbington/Parliamentary Copyright. Parliamentary Copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament.In a…

Mario Cortina BorjaApril 25, 2015

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Return of the mean: the historical cost of filling the tank

Drivers have been rejoicing since the start of the year at the plummeting price of…

Oz FlanaganJanuary 22, 2015

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Is prostitution really worth £5.7 billion a year?

The EU has demanded rapid payment of £1.7 billion from the UK because our economy…

David SpiegelhalterOctober 27, 2014

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House prices: statistics, politics and human behaviour

‘UK house prices rose by 8% in the year’ is the latest startling headline following…

Oz FlanaganMay 30, 2014

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Frog kissing. Or, why do we never learn?

A friend pointed me to this story about the average number of men (or rather…

Robin EvansFebruary 14, 2014

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Scientific inquiry into poetry

In a recent article I reported the results of the internet-test, where the takers had…

Mikhail SimkinJune 24, 2013

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A scientific evaluation of Charles Dickens

Previously I discussed1 my experiment that tested whether people can tell the masterpieces of abstract…

Mikhail SimkinMarch 21, 2013

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Does it rain in Manchester?

The Scottish poet, WD Cocker (1882 - 1970) is best known for 'The Deluge', a…

Andrew McCullochAugust 2, 2012