Data From a Walk

Hello mathematicians, puzzlers, and other curious people!

Today I have for you an experiment that anyone who can count and walk can do, but which, the first time it was done and kept track of, by Gauss, made a big difference to our understanding of statistics and measurement.

• First you need to pick a place that you feel is within a reasonable walking distance from your home. It needs to be close enough that you won\’t mind going there several times to collect data.
• Once you have picked that place, the next step is to walk to that place, but as you walk, count your steps. Before you leave, make sure to bring along some note-taking materials.
• When you get there, make a note of how many steps away from your home this place is on those note taking materials, and then walk back, counting the steps again.
• When you arrive home, make a note of that count of steps as well, and put them and any previous results on one big list together. you can keep the list on paper, in a text file in your computer, or — and this might be handy for the next step — in a spreadsheet like LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets, or Excel.

Once you have done this several times and collected a list of how many steps apart your home and the other location are from many trips, look for patterns. One method that might help would be to make a histogram.

If you find counting your steps across that distance is tricky, you could use subtraction instead of counting, if you have a pedometer or other health tracker such as a Fitbit. By making a note of the number of steps when you leave, when you arrive at the location you have selected, and when you return home, and then subtracting, you can find the number of steps you took during each part of the journey.

Another tool you can use as a simple handheld calculator. By pushing + 1 =, and then repeatedly pushing the = button, you can make it count for you and it will keep track of the number of steps, as long as you are accurate in how you use it.

If you change what method you are using to count steps, make sure you keep track of which counts were counted using which methods, because it\’s important in statistical and scientific analysis to know what tools were used to get the figures being analyzed.

I hope you enjoy this experiment and find out some interesting things from it, and I\’d like to hear back from some of you about how it goes.

Calc You Later!