To Revise or Not to Revise

Recently, each time I make a t-distribution plushie I am not quite 100% satisfied. I am just not really that happy with it's shape and size.

I tell my statistics students that as n increased the t-distribution approaches the standard normal distribution. But if you look at my plushies, this is not the case.

The green standard normal plushie is considerably shorter than the t-distribution plushie. I don't agree with this.


I know what the problem is. I used R to create my patterns. Both pdfs go from -4 to 4 on the x-axis. But, when I copied over the images to a image editing software, to clean them up and size them, I didn't keep the heights the same, I should have.

So, even though both are correct, my t-distribution is taller than my z-distribution by about 2 inches. I just need to trim that pattern back. Or make the z-distribution taller. I just don't know which one to do. But I do believe I should do something. These two distributions should look more like each other (when df=200 for t) than they currently do.

Giveaways and Holiday

I love the holidays! Come October they just roll in. My birthday, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and finish it off with New Years. Wonderful!

This is my first holiday season with Etsy and I'm not really sure what to expect. I know that my products are aimed at a pretty small crowd, but I'm sure that at least some of that crowd still celebrates holidays. I need to get more items in stock!

I have some ideas for new things to work on too. I'd still like to make that graphing calculator case. I know, I mentioned it months ago, but just haven't actually made one yet. I'd also really like to make a statistical quilt! But that will take some time. We'll see. Maybe I'll spend a long weekend sewing and embroidering and making all things stat-y.


In other news, I was recently approached by a "fan" about donating items for a giveaway she was doing on her blog, The World Through My Eyes. Rachael and I worked it out that I would donate two sets of pin/magnet combinations. I've made the magnets before, but this is the only time I've done the pins. They are basically the same, just will a pin stitched on instead of a magnet.

It was fun to decide what to make and sometime this week we'll ship off the little fellas to the lucky winners she chooses!