Clinical Biostatistics: Lucky for Spurs? Suggested answer 2

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Is it "Lucky for Spurs if the year ends in one"?

Whether Totenham Hotspur won a trophy by last digit of year at the end of the season

	Ends in a “1”	Doesn’t end in a “1”	Total
Trophy	8	8	16
No trophy	1	73	74
Total	9	81	90
Fisher's exact test: P<0.00001
(1915-18 and 1940-45 excluded)

2. Where do you think this null hypothesis came from? Did someone decide to investigate it out of curiosity?

Suggested answer

I don't know for sure, but I am fairly confident that someone noticed the pattern and generated the hypothesis from that.

I doubt that anybody would test this (and every other digit, years when there was a general election, years when it snowed on Christmas day, etc.) without having noticed a pattern first.

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Last updated: 31 July, 2006.

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