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Francis Galton: 3 ideas worth knowing

3 ideas from Francis Galton, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• 800 strangers guessing an ox's weight beat every individual expert's estimate

  At a 1906 livestock fair in Plymouth, statistician Francis Galton collected 787 tickets on which fairgoers had guessed the weight of a slaughtered, dressed ox, expecting the averag…

  — Francis Galton, Wisdom of the crowd

• 787 strangers guessed an ox's weight. The crowd average missed it by 1 pound.

  At a 1906 country fair, statistician Francis Galton collected 787 guesses of an ox's dressed weight from a crowd of butchers, farmers and passersby. No individual guess came close,…

  — Francis Galton, Vox Populi

• Extreme results tend to be followed by more average ones, for no special reason

  Francis Galton found that unusually tall parents tend to have somewhat shorter children, and unusually short parents somewhat taller ones — not because of any active correction, bu…

  — Francis Galton, Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature

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