The emperor's nose

For many years, one question troubled the subjects of the Empire. Everyone wanted to know the length of the Emperor’s nose. Of course, being caught observing the Emperor’s face up close, or worse still, holding a ruler near him, would be a provocation and a most serious offense, punished immediately by death.

But many were curious, to the point that a group of wise men gathered to find a method for obtaining the answer, and this is how they did it. Questionnaires were printed and sent in bundles to the village chiefs, who distributed them among the peasants. Literacy was high enough for most of them to be able to answer the single question, which was, of course, “how long do you think the Emperor’s nose is?”

When the forms were collected, the mathematicians added up all the values and divided the result by the number of answers. And so it became known that the length of the nose of the Emperor of China was 6.734602 centimeters.

The complete data set was preserved, of course, and several years later, as the understanding of statistics advanced, the mathematicians noticed some outlying points with completely inappropriate values, obviously the product of deranged minds. These data were distorting the opinions of the rest, and they were eliminated. Then, using the latest numerical modeling techniques, the mathematicians corrected the length of the Emperor’s nose to 4.980403 centimeters. To this day, nobody has produced a better estimate.