Category Archives: Fact Checking

Coal Production By State

Posted on 5-June-2017 by mathscinotes

I have been listening to politicians discussing US energy policy the last few days. Very few facts were presented during these discussions, but one politician did casually mentioned that Wyoming produces more coal than the next six states combined. I did not know that Wyoming was such a dominating coal producer, and I began to look at how to fact check this statement. Fortunately, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has all the data readily available from this web page. Continue reading →

Posted in Fact Checking | 6 Comments

Fact Checking: US Murder Rate Over Time

Posted on 13-February-2017 by mathscinotes

I recently saw a politician claim that the US murder rate is the "highest it's been in 47 years." This is an easy fact to check and provided me another Power Query example to provide for my staff. Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, Fact Checking | 2 Comments

Fact Checking: Comparison of Military Budgets

Posted on 8-February-2017 by mathscinotes

I heard a news commentator say that the US defense budget is larger than the combined defense budgets for the next ten largest spenders. I thought that this would be easy to check and would provide my staff a beginner's example to use for their Excel self-training. Continue reading →

Posted in Civics Through Spreadsheets, Fact Checking | 2 Comments