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Rattling a box filled with 100 paper slips with the number seven or eight written on them, Rajeeva L Karandikar, a psephologist, asked a member of the audience to pick one. The number turned out to be seven. Displaying the sheet, he said: “In fact, 99 of the papers bear one number, with one slip being the exception.” Now, tell me if it was seven or eight that constitutes the majority, he asked. The answer: You should not hazard a guess, and it would be imprudent to conclude it was seven because eight did stand a chance too. But one can be 99 per cent sure that the odd one out will be left out of the reckoning. Source: The Hindu Business Line, CHENNAI, March 7, 2014 Read More... https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/politics/opinion-polls-are-an-approximation-of-public-sentiment/article5757593.ece
In a country where political leaders hop parties, parties switch alliances and voter choices are volatile, opinion polls offered mathematicians a platform to demonstrate the power of statistics, Rajeeva L. Karandikar, Director, Chennai Mathematical Institute said on Thursday. Addressing a lecture-discussion on ‘The science behind opinion polls’ hosted by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Prof. Karandikar said while the opinion poll was neither “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” nor wholly about “lies, damned lies and statistics”, sampling, if properly done, had the power of determining the winner. Source: The Hindu, CHENNAI, March 7, 2014 Read More... Published in other Media: The Hindu Business Line, CHENNAI, March 7, 2014
With the concept of opinion polls being dissected in political circles, Prof. Rajeeva L. Karandikar, Director, Chennai Mathematical Institute, demysti