The Thread of Random Internetz

The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the "true" figures; that is, the figures for the whole population.

In statistics, sampling error or estimation error is the error caused by observing a sample instead of the whole population[1].

An estimate of a quantity of interest, such as an average or percentage, will generally be subject to sample-to-sample variation.[1] These variations in the possible sample values of a statistic can theoretically be expressed as sampling errors, although in practice the exact sampling error is typically unknown. Sampling error also refers more broadly to this phenomenon of random sampling variation.

The likely size of the sampling error can generally be controlled by taking a large enough random sample from the population,[2] although the cost of doing this may be prohibitive; see sample size and statistical power for more detail. If the observations are collected from a random sample, statistical theory provides probabilistic estimates of the likely size of the sampling error for a particular statistic or estimator. These are often expressed in terms of its standard error.

Sampling error can be contrasted with non-sampling error. Non-sampling error is a catch-all term for the deviations from the true value that are not a function of the sample chosen, including various systematic errors and any random errors that are not due to sampling. Non-sampling errors are much harder to quantify than sampling erro

Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities, government and business.

Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, and then used to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both descriptive and inferential statistics comprise applied statistics. There is also a discipline called mathematical statistics, which is concerned with the theoretical basis of the subject.

The word statistics is also the plural of statistic (singular), which refers to the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a set of data, as in economic statistics, crime statistics, etc.

Mathematics is the body of knowledge centered on such concepts as quantity, structure, space, and change, and also the academic discipline that studies them. Benjamin Peirce called it "the science that draws necessary conclusions".[2] Other practitioners of mathematics maintain that mathematics is the science of pattern, and that mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere.[3][4] Mathematicians explore such concepts, aiming to formulate new conjectures and establish their truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.[5]

Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose if appropriate.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language.[1] The OED should not be confused with the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of 1998.

As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained about 301,100 main entries. Supplementing the entry headwords, there are 157,000 bold-type combinations and derivatives; 169,000 italicized-bold phrases and combinations; 616,500 word-forms in total, including 137,000 pronunciations; 249,300 etymologies; 577,000 cross-references; and 2,412,400 usage quotations. The dictionary's latest, complete print edition (Second Edition, 1989) was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages.

The OED's official policy attempted to record a word's most-known usages and variants in all varieties of English past and present, world-wide. Per the 1933 Preface:

Oxford University Press (OUP) is a publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. It is the largest university press in the world, being larger than all the American university presses combined with Cambridge University Press.[1] It has branches all over the world including India, Pakistan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria and the Republic of South Africa. OUP USA, established circa in 1896 and incorporated in 1897, is a private limited company affiliated to the parent body and was the Press's first international venture. The Canadian Branch, opened in 1905, was the second. OUP as a whole is managed by a body of elected representatives called the Delegates of the Press, who are all members of Oxford University. Today it has two main imprints: Oxford University Press, under which the bulk of its reference, educational, and scholarly publications appear, and the Clarendon Press, which is its "prestige" scholarly imprint. Most of the major branches function as local publishers as well as distributing and selling titles from OUP headquarters.

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases authors may be their own publishers, meaning; originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content.

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter). In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction.

Art refers to a diverse range of human activities, creations, and expressions that are appealing or attractive to the senses or have some significance to the mind of an individual. The word "art" may be used to cover all or any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. However it can also be applied to forms of art that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which considers art.