Whenever a baby is born, doctors measure a number of vital statistics about them: height, weight, number of fingers-and-toes, etc. A newborn child is generally considered healthy if they fall somewhere near the average in all of those categories, with a normal, healthy height and weight, and with 10 fingers-and-toes apiece. Sometimes, a child will have an unusually low or high height or weight, or greater or fewer than 10 fingers-and-toes, and the doctors will want to monitor them, ensuring that “not normal” doesn’t imply a problem. However, it turns out that there being an idea of “normal,” where “normal” means the most common set of outcomes, is universal to practically anything we dare to measure in large quantities.
Why does the Church Bell Ring All the Time?
The church bell is an asset from times before everyone had a smartphone in his hand and wouldn’t leave the house without a watch…