OxBowBusiness

Metrics, numbers, data

So you’re studying Business, Accounting or Economics and people keep talking about metrics and statistics and data and numbers. “Why?” you are asking. Who cares whether people are playing FOOTSIE or not?

Well, we are not alone. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is worried about metrics too: they are trying to define the term planet. Surprised? So was I: how come after 4.5 billion years we still haven’t got a definition of the word planet?

Remember the episode of Blackadder, that smooth operating medieval to first world war political/royal/aristocratic schemer, in which they threw Dr Johnson’s dictionary on the fire that Blackadder and Baldrick tried to rewrite it over night?

Baldrick’s marvellous definition of the sea was, That big blue wobbly thing. So, a planet could easily be defined as a big round thing in the sky.

Daft? Not necessarily since roundness is a key feature of a planet for some astronomers.

Anyway, why am I saying all of this? Another key definition of a planet revolves around (that’s a pun) its radius … so we get to the metrics now. The latest seems to be that a planet has to include the radius of 1,000 kilometers otherwise the Earth will be demoted from being a planet to being a not so big round thing in the sky.

And my point is? Metrics are vital, they are the key to opening up standard definitions and in providing insights into a wide range of ideas and problems. Playing FOOTSIE isn’t always important but it’s often a good starting point.

Duncan Williamson

posted by Duncan Williamson @ 6:15 AM