A humorous, tangential offering to Chris Lloyd's query about extremes.
Chris's query didn't discuss the measurement scale for beauty. One I recall
offered many years ago was
The milli-Helen, being "that quantity of beauty sufficient to launch one
ship."
Humorous, but not quite as objective or precise as one might wish. My
colleague has just reminded me that
"Different men have different launch criteria. "
LCol Stephen A.T. Eyres, Ph.D
Director of Human Resources Research and Evaluation 4
Operational Effectiveness
Voice: 613 996 7408
FAX: 613 995 2701
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-----Original Message-----
From: chris lloyd [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 2:33 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: QUERY: extremes
DEAR ALLSTAT LIST:
A MANAGEMENT STRATEGY COLLEAGUE OF MINE IS INTERESTED IN THE
FOLLOWING
ISSUE. CONSIDER THE MISS AMERICA PAGEANT. SUPPOSE THAT
(1) BEAUTY IS NORMALLY DISTRIBUTED ACROSS THE US WITH NO DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN STATES
(2) EACH STATE CHOOSES THEIR MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN TO SEND TO THE
PAGEANT.
(3) THE PAGEANT JUDGES CORRECTLY RANK THE 51 STATE CANDIDATES FROM
MOST TO LEAST BEUATIFUL.
OBVIOUSLY CALIFORNIA HAS A BIG ADVANTAGE OVER MARYLAND BECAUSE OF
ITS MUCH BIGGER POPULATION. THE QUESTION OF INTEREST IS: WHAT IS THE
DISTRIBUTION OF THE RANK OF A STATE'S CANDIDATE AS A FUNCTION OF THE
POPULATION OF THAT STATE (AND PRESUMABLY ALL THE OTHER STATES)?
THE QUESTION IS EASY TO STATE AS A QUESTION ABOUT THE ORDER
STATISTICS
OF A SET OF EXTREMES. THE SCIENCE OF STATISTICS OF EXTREMES BEING
WELL
DEVELOPED, I FIGURED THERE ARE PROBABLY MANY PUBLISHED PAPERS ON
THIS
AND SIMILAR PROBLEMS. PERHAPS THERE ARE ALSO PUBLICATIONS IN THE
SPORTS
STATISTICS LITERATURE.
WHY IS MANAGEMENT SCIENCE INTERESTED IN SUCH ISSUES? BECAUSE IT IS
AN
ARTICLE OF FAITH THAT SOME FIRMS/COUNTRIES HAVE SUSTAINABLE
COMPETETIVE
ADVANTAGE WHICH EXPLAINS THEIR CONSISTENT SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE. BUT
A
CASE CAN SOMETIMES BE MADE THAT PERFORMANCE CAN BE EXPLAINED IN
TERMS
OF A STATISTICAL PROCESS WHERE THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRMS
AND COUNTRIES.
CHRIS J. LLOYD
AUSTRALIAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
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