537 degrees Fahrenheit / 281 degrees Celsius

[don@saklad.org]

The numbers lack randomness.

ABCNews World News Now National Temperature Index does follow a
pattern that makes sense rising and falling with the seasons.

It must be calculated in some manner or it wouldn't rise and fall
so relatively well.

Somebody actually gives the numbers out to whomever puts the numbers
up on the screen. The question is who's actually the source of the
numbers and how does he or she come by those numbers that do actually
appear to have some relative relationship to temperature readings.

Exactly, who?... at ABC or for ABC calculated the numbers
537 degrees Fahrenheit / 281 degrees Celsius
for the ABCNews World News Now National Temperature Index?...

3:35am, 4:05 EDT broadcasts on WCVB-TV Needham Boston Channel 5
ABCNews World News Now National
Temperature Index

fri dec 13
537 degrees Fahrenheit / 281 degrees Celsius

wed dec 11
510 degrees Fahrenheit / 266 degrees Celsius

mon dec 9
494 degrees Fahrenheit / 257 degrees Celsius

fri dec 6
501 degrees Fahrenheit / 261 degrees Celsius

thurs dec 5
469 degrees Fahrenheit / 243 degrees Celsius

a. In detail, how did he make the calculation?...

b. Precisely, what cities were used?...

Speculative information
Some of the ideas people have come up with so far,
for example
[ http://groups.google.com/groups?as_e...coring=d&hl=en ]

[ http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&n...arch=&safe=off ]

[ http://images.google.com/images?q=+%...m3&sa=N&tab=wi ]

[ http://wnn.abcnews.com ]

[ http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.e...+December+2002 ]

[scr4]

It's just a joke. Maybe there is a formula, maybe someone just makes up the number before each show.

[don@saklad.org]

Thank you for your interest !

The numbers aren't random!

[scr4]

Don, you obviously know it's a joke, yet you've been asking this question on Usenet over and over. What makes you think there is any significance to this number? "It's not random" is not a reason. If someone makes up the number, he/she may try to come up with a higher number in summer and lower in winter, so it won't be random. But that doesn't mean it means anything. Or maybe there is a formula that takes the temperature of some place, multiply or add some other numbers and come up with this bogus "index." Again, it doesn't mean anything.

[tanstaafl]

From the link scr4 posted earlier:

Its purpose is to poke fun at the other indexes that people don't understand. She said there is an actual mathematical formula that only one person knows and computes using data from several cities. She also said that its just for viewers to see that if the index goes up its going to be hotter and if it goes down its going to be cooler."

So, it's really a meaningless number the purpose of which is to "poke fun at the other indexes that people don't understand". It is calculated somehow apparently since there "is an actual mathematical formula " but given that "only one person knows" the formula I'd say it is pretty much meaningless.

Just because there is an equation to derive the number doesn't make it meaningful. There are "equations" to derive random numbers too.

[micco]

Originally posted by tanstaafl
There are "equations" to derive random numbers too.

OT nitpick: there are algorithms for pseudo-random numbers. There's a big difference between pseudo-random numbers obtained from a deterministic source and true random numbers. Some algorithms are better than others and if you use a cryptographically-strong pseudo-random algorithm, you're close enough to random for most practical purposes, but they're still not the same thing.

[don@saklad.org]

Exactly who is the actual person who came up with the National Temperature Index?...