- #1,121
BobG
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
- 352
- 88
zoobyshoe said:So, what is the Law of Averages? Is the crime being average or not being average?
The crime is not behaving randomly in an orderly pattern. In other words, in order for the Law of Averages to work, everyone's behavior has to be random, but their random behavior has to be in a pattern that's easily predictable.
For example, the Law of Averages say a certain number of people will die this year in automobile accidents. But this dying in car accidents should appear random enough that those dying in car accidents this year have no clue ahead of time, else they'd foil the Law of Averages by not driving at all and then where would we be?
We'd have random chaos - that's where we'd be!
Auto insurance companies wouldn't know how much to charge us if they can't predict how many people will die each year! The department of transportation wouldn't know how much gasoline tax to charge us in order to maintain our roads if they could no longer rely on us to drive a set number of miles each year in fuel guzzling SUVS!