17
DID YOU HAVE BREAKFAST
THIS MORNING?
Royal College of Art, London
The Henry Moore Galleries
05/11/14
DID YOU HAVE BREAKFAST THIS MORNING? was an “in-depth” statistical survey of the group. For the event, eleven questions were printed as long banners and pinned high on the gallery walls. Possible answers were also printed out (letters, numbers, NO, YES, etc.) and laid on tables for participants to select from as needed.
For the first time I also invited online participation. The amalgamated group of 66 online participants (seen as b/w photographs in the images) and 36 event participants presented some surprising answers as well as some statistical aberrations. (All statistics are represented as shapes on the floor of each image.) We also tested the Birthday Problem which states that there is a 50% chance that 2 people will share a birthday if the group numbers at least 23 people. There was a surprisingly high incidence of shared birthdays. In the combined group of 100 participants there were 9 shared birthdays and 1 further birthday (Oct 30) shared by 3 people!
Errors acknowledged in this survey are both “random” (noise) and “systematic” (bias):
Noise - I could not assign "hair colour at age 3" to participants under 3 years of age (so I guessed).
Bias – I know almost all of the participants.
See also *The Answers Chorus
Assisted by Heather McDonough