[Phys-L] statistics of flooring

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 11/08/2012 07:08 PM, Jeff Bigler wrote:
> I stumbled upon an unexpected distribution when I had my students
> measure the corridor outside of my room.  The surface is a
> pebble-and-epoxy floor made of large tiles with regularly spaced
> expansion joints. 

Are we sure these are actually tiles?  A conventional terrazzo floor is
/poured/ in place.  This is very much cheaper than laying tiles.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrazzo

===================

Tangentially related:  

*) I put up a discussion of how to do the calculation of electoral vote 
 probabilities
    http://www.av8n.com/physics/probability-intro.htm#sec-ec-prob

*) I also added a section on the "operator and ket" representation.
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/probability-intro.htm#sec-ket

Both of these serve to emphasize the point that a probability distribution
is not a number.  Instead it is more like a vector in a high-dimensional 
space.