CNN News Clip

One hundred years of flight! It hardly seems possible that we have advanced from Orville Wright's first flight to a space station in just one century. On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers, with very limited resources, were able to use bicycle balance and wind tunnel experiments to achieve the first flight. They were the first to understand how the lift from the aerofoil changes in flight, but their selection of the location for this first flight was less than ideal. "We need privacy and a consistent wind," said Wilbur. "Did you write to the Weather Bureau to find a suitable location?" "Well," replied Orville, "I received this list of possible locations and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, looks like just what we want. Look at this ." However, Orville and Wilbur spent many days waiting in frustration after they arrived in Kitty Hawk, because the winds weren't suitable. The Weather Bureau's information gave the averages, but the Wright brothers didn't realize that an acceptable average can be produced by unacceptable extremes.

In this section, we'll discuss not only averages, but also measures of dispersion that would have helped Wilbur and Orville find a more suitable location for their experiments.