large city, who rode on the first bus to begin operating, wrote
this. She said, "An informal poll of bus passengers showed
that most of them had paid friends to drive them to work
during the forty-three-day lapse in bus service." There were
16 passengers on the bus and the time was 4:55 a.m.

These days, when you ask a person on the street for
directions, you haven't asked a person, you have conducted a
randomly selected interview. Ask two people and you will
have conducted an "informal survey." Ask three people and
you have done a "scientific survey."

All too often how we report numbers is influenced more by
circumstance and desire than by objectivity. For example, we
often see television audience figures appearing in newspa-
pers. Television Station A sees a profit in sharing its num-
bers. It reports total late-night television audience viewing
share as shown here.

The implication here is that there is 100% television viewing.
In reality, only 16% of the population said they watched
late-night television. As you see here, the percentages repre-
senting the persons watching late-night television were sub-
stantially lower.

From the station's point of view, 50% looks much better than
8%. What they neglected to mention was that 16% was the
base of the share percentages.

Averages can be as ambiguous. Ever hear this one? "I have
one foot on a bed of hot coals and one foot on a cake of ice.
On the average, I feel fine."

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