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From: larry@grkermit.UUCP (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: never believe what you read in the popular press about science
Message-ID: <512@grkermit.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Jul-83 09:47:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: grkermit.512
Posted: Fri Jul 22 09:47:29 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Jul-83 22:01:22 EDT
References: <499@grkermit.UUCP>, <287@cbscd5.UUCP> <1282@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: GenRad Inc., Concord, MA
Lines: 14

The "water is an intoxicant" experiment violates the scientific method
because it did not use a control group.  That is, you have to have
a group which is identical to the test groups in all aspects except for
the characteristic you are testing.  Thus, in order for the "intoxicant"
experiment to be valid, there would have to have been a day on which I 
drank vodka and no water, or gin and no water.  If I didn't get drunk on
those days, then I could say that water had an effect.
-- 
Larry Kolodney #13 (I try harder)
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