In the book by Mr Richard Feyman -"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", there is a funny story, entitled "length of Emperor of China's nose".
“...Nobody was permitted to see the Emperor of China, and the question was, what is the length of the Emperor of China's nose? To find out, you go all over the country asking people what they think the length of the Emperor of China's nose is, and you average it. And that would be very "accurate" because you averaged so many people. But it's no way to find anything out; when you have a very wide range of people who contribute without looking carefully at it, you don't improve your knowledge of the situation by averaging. "
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