Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I see it in a lot of posts. What does it mean?

edited Dec 6 2011 at 23:40

Paul
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asked Dec 6 2011 at 21:29

balor123
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It means this is my personal anecdote with no controls or rigor or experimental design or analysis, but I will tell you about my personal experience and what I think and I will call it “n=1” to make it more sciencey sounding. – Paleo2.0 Dec 6 2011 at 21:42

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Um, for me it's just easier to type "n=1" than...all that stuff you wrote, P2. In "sciencey" terms, though, "n" is the size of the population being studied. Just to be perfectly clear, however, a small "n" says nothing about controls or rigor or lack thereof. – Rose Dec 6 2011 at 22:27

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"n" does imply that there is actually a study or experiment going on though. Many “n=1” anecdotes are often not even a rudimentary experiments of “I tried A, and I tried B, and A worked best.” Many “n=1” anecdotes are a datum looking for a study. Sometimes people throw them out there for someone else to process (e.g. “I eat strict Paleo and my fasting blood glucose is 85”). Just because you have a data point doesn't mean you have a study. – Paleo2.0 Dec 7 2011 at 0:42

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@Rose, my understanding of phrase "n=1" was not that it meant the population size is 1, but that the sample size is 1, since sample sizes are reported as "n=__" in the literature. However, you bring up an excellent point that when people talk about n=1 experiments, they are interested only in themselves, in which case, the population size is also 1 (and thus we don't need to worry about extrapolation issues). – Sara S. Dec 7 2011 at 1:27

.....& 'n' stands for number – daz Dec 7 2011 at 4:44

April S. · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-06 21:33:07Z UTC

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Your own experience. The subject size of the "experiment" is 1, meaning you.

answered Dec 6 2011 at 21:33

April S.♦
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Or, as I prefer to think, "It's about me!" :-)) – Nance Dec 6 2011 at 21:36

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In scientific experiments involving subjects, "n = 1000" means there were a thousand experimental subjects. "N = 1" means, around here: "Does it work for me personally? Experiment, try stuff, trial and error" – Dorado Galore Dec 6 2011 at 21:42

Lutfisk · Answer 2 · 2011-12-06 23:17:26Z UTC

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I don't know.. BUT I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED. Everyone on here throws it around like a bunch of fancy pants.

answered Dec 6 2011 at 23:17

Lutfisk
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Oh, that's just your CNS talking, Lizz. :) CNS = central nervous system. Another favorite acronym of the IFMSTYEK crowd. "I've forgotten more stuff than you'll ever know." – Dorado Galore Dec 6 2011 at 23:21

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Ooooh, those fancy pants! fancypantsadventures.com – Dave S. Dec 7 2011 at 14:08

PUFA MUFA CLO! but YMMV. – Lutfisk Dec 7 2011 at 16:10

Mike Gruber · Answer 3 · 2011-12-07 03:32:57Z UTC

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It means n^2 also equals 1.

answered Dec 7 2011 at 3:32

Mike Gruber
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Satya · Answer 4 · 2011-12-08 16:23:43Z UTC

It is the jargon dujour for a personal anecdote, but it is incorrect and misleading in such usage. Ned Kock has the answer why.

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2011/09/calling-self-experimentation-n1-is.html

Actually Chris Masterjohn wrote on the subject prior to Kock.

http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2011/09/how-to-do-proper-self-experiment-and.html

Both posts are worthy of consideration.

Dave S. · Answer 5 · 2011-12-07 14:03:10Z UTC

"Queston 4. Whether 1 is a number?

"Objection 1. Numbers are either politicians or suits of cards. But 1 is neither. Therefore 1 is not a number.

"Reply to Objection 1. Maybe 1 is also a politician, a young lady, or a suit of cards. I did not say it was not. The set of politicians, young ladies, and suits of cards cannot be properly injected into itself; the set of numbers can; therefore some numbers are none of these things."

-- From "Mathematics Made Difficult" by Carl E. Linderholm

Tom R. · Answer 6 · 2011-12-07 14:21:43Z UTC

Off topic, but in case you run across it, YMMV is "your mileage may vary," which I find to be closely related to n=1. It's a way for the person providing the response to qualify it to his/her own personal experience and is not necessarily indicative of what others should expect.

AnarchyCaveman · Answer 7 · 2012-05-19 00:59:43Z UTC

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Thank you for asking this question.

answered May 19 2012 at 0:59

AnarchyCaveman
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What does n=1 mean?

7 Answers