Main content

Missing Planes

Could Bayesian statistics help find Flight MH370?

Could a branch of statistics named after an 18th Century mathematician, Thomas Bayes, be used to find flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing?

Senior analyst Colleen Keller, from Metron Inc in the US, tells More or Less how her team used Bayesian statistics to help locate the wreckage of Air France flight 447 from Brazil to France which disappeared in 2009.

This niche form of statistical modelling has been used to find everything from submarines to missing people. Could it help locate MH370?

(Image: Heart and a plane made from lighted candles, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Available now

11 minutes

Last on

Mon 24 Mar 2014 03:50GMT
91福利社 World Service Online

More episodes

Previous

Mailbox Edition

Next

Is London France鈥檚 Sixth Largest City?

See all episodes from More or Less

  • How maths helped locate a lost plane at sea - read the 91福利社 News Magazine article.

Broadcasts

  • Sat 22 Mar 2014 11:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service Online
  • Sun 23 Mar 2014 23:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service Online
  • Mon 24 Mar 2014 03:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service Online

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?

When can you trust statistics?

91福利社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast

  • More or Less

    Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life