Faith and Charity?
Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news and in life. Is there a link between practising a religion and donating to charity?
"Religion Makes People More Generous"- That's how The Daily Telegraph reported a new 91福利社 poll on charitable giving. Tim Harford investigates whether there is a link between practising a religion and whether we give.
Big data has been enjoying a lot of hype, with promises it will help deliver everything from increased corporate profits to better healthcare. While the potential is certainly there, is the hype blinding us to some basic statistical lessons learned over the past two hundred years?
And with 365 days in the year, it feels like a huge coincidence when we meet someone with the same birthday. But you only need 23 people to have a better than even chance that two will share a birthday. Alex Bellos tests out this counter-intuitive result, known as the birthday paradox, on the perfect real-word data-set - all 32 squads of 23 players at the World Cup.
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Read James Fletcher鈥檚 article for the 91福利社 News Magazine website.
Chapters
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Faith and Charity?
Is there a link between what we believe and whether we give?
Duration: 09:02
Bad Data
Big data has enjoyed a lot of hype but are we forgetting basic statistical lessons?
Duration: 08:35
World Cup Birthdays
We use the World Cup to test the 鈥渂irthday paradox鈥 with Alex Bellos.
Duration: 04:59
Broadcasts
- Fri 13 Jun 2014 16:3091福利社 Radio 4 FM
- Sun 15 Jun 2014 20:0091福利社 Radio 4
Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU
Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.
When can you trust statistics?
Podcast
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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life

