A Slight Gripe

One of the two courses I'm taking this summer is statistics.

Let me say first that I have never particularly liked math.  In fact, I have mostly had a rather hateful relationship with said subject.

And statistics is reminding me why.  Words that make perfect sense in everyday life take on an extra head and a totally different meaning in math.

For example, one sort of graph that I was reading about in the stats textbook today instructed me that it was a curve.  Okay, got a mental image of a curve?  Well, think again.  Apparently, this is a "curve" which is drawn by connecting various points with straight lines.  There is no curvature whatsoever.

That said, having read and reacted to those ridiculous instructions, I'm probably not going to forget that you draw an ogive by connecting dots with straight lines, thus forming a "curve."