sigmas : statistics :: __________ : astronomy

Americans above a certain age will remember that the SAT used to include a category of “analogy questions” of the form “puppy : dog :: ______ : cow.” (This is pronounced “puppy is to dog as blank is to cow,” and the answer is “calf.”) Upon reading Peter Coles’s snarky and informative blog post about the recent quasi-news about the Higgs particle, I thought of one of my own. (By the way, Peter’s post is worth reading for several reasons, not least of which is his definition of the word “compact” as it is used in particle physics.)

Answer after the jump.

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