TU100, My Digital Life, Block 2, Part 5, Session 3.5, Messy consequences, Activity 31 and 32.

 Block 2, My Stuff, Open University., Part 5, With the Tears wiped Off., TU100: My Digital Life.  No Responses »
Jan 022012
 

Excerpt from Open University course TU100 material:

Figure 29 Global temperature anomalies, 1850–2008 (data from Brohan et al., 2006)
Figure 29 Global temperature anomalies, 1850–2008 (data from Brohan et al., 2006)

 Activity 31

What mistake do you think one might make when investigating messy data like that in Figure 29?

It is difficult to make out any trends or correlations from the data due to the lack of any easily noticeable patterns in the data due to the chaotic nature of the spread of the data points.

Activity 32

Have a look back at Figure 29. How might one select a period of data that would demonstrate that global temperatures are falling?

To select a dataset that correlates with a drop in global temperature by selecting the higher datapoints for the period 1850 – 1910, and the lower data points for the times between 1910 – 1970. Plucking data like that would result in a negative correlation.

TU100, My Digital Life, Block 2, Part 5, Session 3.5, Messy consequences, Activity 30.

 Block 2, My Stuff, Open University., Part 5, With the Tears wiped Off., TU100: My Digital Life.  No Responses »
Jan 022012
 

How do you think the graphic in Figure 28 conceals information?

Excerpt from the Open University course TU100:

Figure 28 Global temperature anomalies, 1850–2008 (data from Brohan et al., 2006)

Figure 28 Global temperature anomalies, 1850–2008 (data from Brohan et al., 2006)

How do you think the graphic in Figure 28 conceals information?

the graph shows one temperature point for each year, so already the set of result used for the graph is suspect as anyone will tell you that temperature varies not only from place to place, but from the latitude, and even time of day and time of the year.

 

As there is no information about how the points have been derived ( if it is a specific measurement from one place at the same time each year ), or if it is a mean, median or modal value from a set of values taken from various locations or various times throughout the timescale.