Talk:Rankit

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Mathematics grading:	Start Class	Low Importance	Field: Probability and statistics

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[edit] Early comments

In my last edit summary, I should have said it's a normal probability plot regardless of whether the underlying distribution is normal. Rankits are based on a normal distribution. Normal probability plots are used in order (among other things) diagnose non-normality! Michael Hardy 23:49, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

This topic seems extremely obscure. Even the reference link gives nothing on what a rankit is. A search on Google turns up extremely little. Even information on the Mr. Bliss is very scarce. So, the question is: is this something that people actually use? It seems that its utility is very, very low relative to the Q-Q plot. Can anyone demonstrate real utilization of it? I'd like to suggest removing this topic as an idea that not only never caught on, because it is basically useless.

It is certainly something that virtually all statisticians use all the time. Normal probability plots are standard fair. The individual numbers may often be called "expected normal order statistics" or the like, rather than "rankits". In the graduate program in statistics at the University of Minnesota, use of the term is widespread, perhaps because one of the professors studied under Chester Bliss. I think having a short term rather than a long descriptive phrase is useful Michael Hardy 21:02, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article title?

Should the article title be Rankit or Normal proability plot ?

Rankit just scored 40,100 hits on Google
"Normal proability plot" scored 93,900 hits

What do others think? DFH 18:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I recently needed to use this page. I searched for a probability plot, and saw that the normal probability plot redirected to here (I created a redirect for probability plot to this page too, for the time being). I think the appropriate page name should be "normal probability plot" over "rankit" simply because I have never heard of the term rankit in any statistics course I have had, while I have used normal probability plots extensively. Jason Smith 05:57, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I think a point in favor of "rankit" is that it's a simpler idea than "normal probability plot". One uses rankits in the construction of normal probability plots. Michael Hardy 23:30, 23 February 2007 (UTC)