Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxr.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxr!lew From: lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Correction to my Helmut Schmidt article Message-ID: <878@ihuxr.UUCP> Date: Wed, 1-Feb-84 13:36:33 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxr.878 Posted: Wed Feb 1 13:36:33 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 7-Feb-84 09:18:15 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 25 A week or so ago, I posted a comment about the psychokinesis experiment by Helmut Schmidt which was described on the NOVA ESP show. I noted that a net displacement of 120 after 6000 random binary steps was not statistically exceptional. Dean Radin has convinced me that the figure of 120 is NOT the displacement but the number of steps-to-the-right above average. This is 1/2 the displacement. A displacement of 240 steps after 6000 total IS significant. About one trial in 10,000 would be expected to achieve this. It seems that the NOVA graph is taken from one in the book, MIND AT LARGE which shows deviations of +160 and -144 out of 6400 "trials". This adds a new confusion since (according to Dean) the cumulative deviations are shown "after each section of 256 trials". Presumably a set of 256 trials means one session of 256 binary events. Of course, the division into sets of 256 raises the old spectre of selected data. I have obtained the source article of another graph shown on the NOVA show. It is by R.G. Jahn (Dean of the Princeton School of Engineering) and appears in Proceedings of IEEE, Vol 70, no.2, February 1982. It is a long survey article which includes a description of a REG (Random Event Generator) experiment conducted by a Princeton undergrad. This was cited on NOVA as one of the corroborations of Schmidt's results. I'll post some more comments about this article to net.misc. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew