[masraum]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Statistics are statistics. Economics, genealogy, epidemiology, math is math. Tough to figure out where we are, because the Chinese have been lying about it from the beginning.

The problem is that statistics can be used to present the data in different ways depending upon how it's calculated which can be based on faulty logic, bias of the calculator or bias of the folks that provided the source data to the statistician for calculation.

Think about ads from the big truck manufacturers
biggest engine in its class
most powerful engine in its class
most powerful standard engine in its class
Then is the biggest the most powerful, and even most powerful, how, most area under the torque curve, hp curve, highest peak torque, highest peak hp?

For another interesting case, consider Wald, the WWII bombers' armor and survivorship bias.