[LINK] OT: How to Lie with Statistics v. 2,619

[Roger Clarke]

The official Olympics page orders by G, then S, then B.
(Ignore my misleading statement that it uses 1-0-0, thanks Martin):
http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/

On that basis,                          Australia was 10th:

If you weight Gold-Silver-Bronze 3-2-1  Australia was  8th

If you just do a medal-count     1-1-1                 7th

If                               5-3-1                 8th
                                  5-2-1                 9th
                                  7-3-1                 8th

The top 4 were the same on all of those six weighting arrangements.

South Korea (5th with 13-8-7) was 6th to 9th on other scales.

I guess some version of the law of large numbers tended to bring the 
patterns closer together as the Games went on and metal was 
distributed.

At a quick count, 109 countries won at least one medal.

On a weighted-by-population basis, among the top 20, Jamaica pipped 
NZ, with Australian just beaten for 3rd by Hungary, and comfortably 
ahead of the UK.  That was the same whether by medal-count or 3-2-1 
weighting.

A few smaller countries such as Lithuania, Slovenia and Trininad and 
Tobago will squeeze up above Australia as well.  The Bahamas probably 
won.

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Northern Ireland?


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