Trego's Mountain Ear

Not all numbers are suitable for math, yet we can still use them. Section, Township and Range allow us to find a location on a map, or travel to a specific location. It’s usually expressed in terms Like T37W R25N S19 – which translates to Township (36 Square Miles) 37 W (west of the point of origin) Range 25 North (of the point of origin, section 19. That’s a numeric system that has been with us since 1785 – we have had the rectangular coordinate system longer than we’ve had the Constitution. At the northwest corner of the state, it’s pretty easy to use. Down by Virginia City, around the point of origin, you have to be real careful about the N,S,E and W. I found myself off by six miles a couple times when I got careless there. For those who can’t handle that system, we have street names and numbers. There are still some advantages to street numbers – on Fortine Creek Road, the street numbers show distance from the railroad track crossing at Trego.

In some cases – social security numbers, for example – the number exists only as an identification. When I couldn’t get decent data on migration, I started using U-Haul rental rates as a substitute. For example, renting a U-Haul 15′ truck from Los Angeles to Eureka shows up as $4,817. Taking the truck back from Eureka to LA is $1,112. I can’t turn that into precise migration data – but I have no problem inferring that there is a lot more migration from Los Angeles to northwest Montana than the other way around. It’s valid – but I have had people dismiss the conclusions because the data is not adequately precise for them. For me, U-Haul provides a great resource on migration. I can find more specific numbers – but not as current. So we have numbers that are only useful as identifiers, and we have numbers that are useful in determining locations, and I can even use U-Haul prices to determine migration trends (and in this application I have had the mathematically illiterate question my conclusions).

Ordinal numbers show position in a list – or first, second, third in a contest. My street address shows not just my position on the street, it also shows the distance from the railroad crossing at Trego. The U-Haul prices show that there is a lot more migration from Los Angeles to NW Montana than vice-versa. There are a lot of times when I can’t get perfect data – but I can get usable data. Usable data beats non-existent data.

In the movie “Tombstone” Doc Holiday describes gambling: “Poker’s an honest trade – only a sucker bucks the tiger.” There are different significant numbers in various forms of poker. In draw poker, where the hand is not seen until the end of the game, the odds have been calculated, published and frequently memorized. In five card stud, where a single card is concealed and the next four are dealt one at a time, face-up, you can develop a rough estimate of each hand’s statistical probability. Draw poker is an honest trade – stud poker even more so – it is a statistician’s game (I ignore the psychological aspects of the game). The numbers have a different quality when four cards in each hand are visible.

There are people who think they aren’t good at math – I think that they were taught by people who didn’t share all of the wonderful ways to use numbers. Of course, I am the guy who used a rather large set of loaded dice to help teach statistics. One of my former students asked where the dice were when he visited campus, and I explained my daughter had taken them with her when she moved to study at USD. His comment still puzzles me – “I guess that she doesn’t call home for money very often.” Language can be as confusing as numbers – and, as Doc Holiday said, “Poker’s an honest trade.” Dice usually are – but I guess most teachers don’t use loaded dice.