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Re: [Phys-L] statistics of flooring



On 11/9/2012 3:49 AM, John Denker wrote:
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

Indeed.

Because I didn't know previously how terrazzo floors were constructed, I
had originally assumed that they were tiles, so I started the story
using the term that I thought was correct when I was taking the original
measurements. Once the variation confirmed for me that the floor must
have been poured in place, I continued to use the term "tiles" in the
story, because that's what I had already been calling them.

But yes, it would have been more correct for me to call them something
like "segments".

--
Jeff Bigler
Lynn English HS; Lynn, MA, USA
"Magic" is what we call Science before we understand it.