Articles written by Peter Flom

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About me - Peter Flom

I am a statistician; I work with clients in a variety of fields, especially the social sciences, education, and medicine, and provide help to both graduate students and researchers, including help with dissertations, grant proposals, and general research.

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Society & Lifestyle > Personal Morals & Values We are products of our environment: 5 of 80
Take a human trait. Almost any human trait. Some of that trait is almost certainly caused by nature - by one's genes. Some of that trait is almost certainly caused by nurture - by one's environment. Let's take a trait that we understand well: Phenylketonuria. It's 100% environmental AND 100% genetic. How's that again? Well, ... More..
Sciences > Psychology Why verbal abuse can be just as damaging as mental abuse: 3 of 28
Parents hit their children with all sorts of things: Fists, hands, belts....the list goes disgustingly on..... and words. This article is not meant in any way to lessen the horrors of physical abuse. One of the best things I've done in my life (at age 5) was to convince a woman that hitting her daughter was not a good idea, a... More..
Sciences > Mathematics Mathematics: Mode, median and mean averages: 1 of 6
The arithmetic mean (aka mean or average), the median, and the mode In this introductory statistics article, we will explore the mean, formally known as the arithmetic mean (average) and how it's used and abused, and compare it to the median and the mode. When can the mean be calculated? There are various ways to classify v... More..
Sciences > Ecology & Environment Energy-saving tips: 4 of 22
There are many simple ways to save energy; some involve very little time or effort, some involve more time or effort, but may have bigger savings as well. Here are a quick 25. 1. Turn off light bulbs when not in use - savings = 100% 2. Use compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) wherever possible - savings = 75% http://www.energystar... More..
Education > Special Education Should we accelerate America's brightest students?: 1 of 4
The phrase 'gifted student' fits a wide range of children. Some people say, and with some justification, that all children have gifts. Usually, though, when people talk about gifted education they mean children with a range of gifts in academic areas. But, even with this more narrow definition, there is a huge range. This is ... More..
Local Guides > New York City The best Italian restaurants in New York City, New York: 3 of 7
The best Italian restaurant in Manhattan, price no object, is Babbo, located at 110 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village. This is Mario Batali's top restaurant, and every item on the menu is wonderful. This may be the best Italian food outside of Italy. Here, Batali is not going for Italian-American food, this is challenging fo... More..
Sciences > Mathematics Calculus: The basics: 5 of 10
What is calculus? Although it is a huge subject, it is really about two fundamental ideas: differentiation and integration. Differentiation is a sophisticated form of division, and tries to get at 0/0. Integration is a sophisticated form of multiplication and addition, and tries to get at 0*infinity. I will discuss differenti... More..
Sciences > Mathematics Cantor's Infinity Proof Made Easy: 3 of 6
How many numbers are there? Silly question, right? They never stop! Let's talk about the counting numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4 .... that ... means "and so on", and little kids know that there is no biggest number. It's *infinity*. How big is infinity? How should we think about infinity? Can we think about infinity in sensible ways th... More..
Sciences > Mathematics Mathematics statistics: Confidence intervals and confidence limits: 1 of 2
There are two broad branches of statistics: Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Rather sensibly, descriptive statistics is about describing something, and inferential statistics is about making instances. Suppose, for instance you were interested in the heights of children in 4th grade. If you only wanted to k... More..
Sciences > Mathematics Independent and dependent statistical variables: 1 of 2
Most generally, a dependent variable (DV) is something which we think depends on one or more independent variables (IV). That is, we think that, if the IVs change, the DV will change. There is a causal element here - but statistics cannot test the causation, it can only see if there is a relationship. The proper interpretati... More..