Balt's Law
Anyone heard of this mathematician called Dr. Balt that Grif talks about to his brother in law? I looked up Balt's Law and Dr. Balt and couldn't find anything.
shareI think it is made up for the movie. I have a masters in engineering with about thirty semester hours of mathematics courses and have never heard of anyone named Balt in connection with math.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
Maybe I don't have the spelling of the doctor's name correct. I imagine anyone who studied statistics seriously would know if the theory stated in the movie was fake or not.
shareI watched the rest of the movie and got the conversation.
The statements that Robert Ryan's character makes about statistics are correct. The failure to accept independent events as statistically independent is probably the greatest logical error that people make with regard to probability. It's the reason people like to pick a favorite number for the lottery and then play it over and over. I would need to dig out a text book or look it up on the internet to see who they are actually attributable to.
I have never heard or seen in print the name "Balt" (that's what I heard in the film, also) in connection with mathematics. French and Germans are the most often represented, with a fair sprinkling of English. But, I've never seen a Balt (French?).
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.