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I've got a bird bath to hook onto the side of his cage, but he just cocks his head and looks at it as though to say "what the hell is that thing?". He won't go into the water at all. I've tried putting a lettuce leaf in the bath to tempt him in but all he does is stand on the lip of the bath and lean forwards, stretching out to his full length to grab the edge of it, then pulls it out onto the floor of the cage. I've tried showering him with a plant mister a few times but he absolutely HATES that. Any tips? --84.68.70.40 07:32, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
This would have been an excellent question for the Science Desk. BTW, what makes you think he needs a bath ? StuRat 03:30, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
Can someone explain and/or help me understand the following concept about percentiles. Thank you. Let's say that John takes an exam, and let's just say that it is the SAT exam. By definition, a percentile is the percentage of examinees that score at or below John's score. So, if John's scaled score has a 75th percentile, that means that 75% of the population of examinees scored worse/lower than John or equal to John. That is my base understanding and the premise of my question. As such, a percentile (by definition) can never be 100% (because John himself is a part of the population of examinees and John cannot score lower than John). So, the "highest" that a percentile can be is 99.999999999% or so, but it can never actually reach 100%. We normally think of exam scores as 0 to 100, and we normally think of percentages as 0% to 100%. While exam scores and percentages can be higher than 100 or 100%, nonetheless, they are based on the value 100. So, I guess my question is ... why are percentiles not defined as going from 0 to 100 (i.e., actually including the 100 value)?
Scenario A: John scores 88% and there are nine other examinees that all have scored 75% on the exam. In rank order, the scores look like this: 75 - 75 - 75 - 75 - 75 - 75 - 75 - 75 - 75 - 88. Thus nine examinees out of ten (i.e., 90% of the examinees) have scored lower than or equal to John. Thus, John's percentile score is 90. In other words, in plain English ... out of everyone who took the exam, 90% did worse than John.
Scenario B: Use the same data as Scenario A. Why can't percentiles be defined such that nine examinees out of nine (i.e., 100% of the examinees) have scored lower than or equal to John? So that John's percentile score is 100. In other words, in plain English, everyone else scored below John ... (since, obviously, John did not and cannot score below John).
So, in Scenario A, the ratio or fraction is 9/10 = 90%. In Scenario B, the ratio or fraction is 9/9 = 100%. So, in other words, why can't the denominator be every examinee except John (n-1) instead of every examinee including John (n) ...? I don't know if I have explained this clearly, but I hope that someone gets the gist of my question. Why can't percentiles go up to and include the 100%, which would seem to make much more common sense or intuitive sense ...? Thanks. (JosephASpadaro 18:28, 7 July 2007 (UTC))
Thanks for the comments -- I appreciate the input. (JosephASpadaro 00:39, 9 July 2007 (UTC))
Due to the concept of infinity, there is no "biggest" or "largest" number that exists. Since we can always simply add one to any number, there are infinitely many numbers ... i.e., numbers continue to infinity. My question is: what is the largest named number? By that, I mean verbally (words), not numerically. In other words, if we use numbers, we can say that a very big number is 100 raised to the 100 power. And we can do that with any numbers we so choose. However, we also verbally "name" these numbers with words (i.e., hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, etc.). Using the system of words, what is the largest number that actually has a verbal "name"? Thanks. Also, when we get to very large numbers, is there simply some type of systematic naming scheme -- such that there are infinitely many names (similar to what they do in naming "more new" elements on the Periodic Table)? Thank you. (JosephASpadaro 18:47, 7 July 2007 (UTC))
Thanks, all, for the input -- and for the relevant links. All very interesting. Thank you. (JosephASpadaro 00:40, 9 July 2007 (UTC))
Do there exist triangles in the Cartesian plane with integer vertices such that the incenter of the triangle also has integer coordinates? If so, can you give an example? Dr. Sunglasses 21:45, 7 July 2007 (UTC)