Daigian could well be lower than the 62.5% number RJ stated as we know the Tower has been weakening for centuries.
Daigian meets the current standards, if barely (if she didn't she would not have be allowed to pass the test for the shawl, she'd had remained an Accepted, constrained to remain in TV). RJ said only 32.5% of women are strong enough to meet them. It's possible the standards have been lowered at some point, though the AS seem to imply they did not (one of them mentioned at some point that despite the decreasing strength and the fact less and less candidates could meet the standards, they were not to lower them...) but 32,5% of women was the current state of things anyway (or RJ would have specified the number applied to a past state of things, not the current one...), and that forcibly includes Daigian at the minimal required level to be allowed to past the test.
My point being a combination of declining numbers and declining strength could easily lead to declining standards. Daigian was clearly dedicated to earning the Shawl, the AS may well have decided to lower the standard to keep numbers up. Obviously I'm in pure speculation territory, but Daigian could just as easily be an example of the decline of the WT as anything else. Ultimately it has little bearing on Bell Curves etc...
The context of the Q&A makes it very clear RJ was referring to the story's contemporary WT standards.
She lies exactly on that boundary that RJ was referring to.
I actually think she lies below this boundary. She seems to be too weak to become an AS but got through using perseverance. The fact that most AS treat her as little better than a wilder demonstrates this. I think she is significantly below the next strongest AS, whomever that is. It makes no difference though, Daigian's strength has never been a direct marker of OP strength like Lanfear or Egwene's has. She's merely a name for the weakest AS level, and whether its Daigain or Vandene or Adeleas makes no difference.
RJ said 37.5% of female channelers fall below the level required to qualify for the Shawl.
It is clearly stressed that Daigian passed this test by a hairsbreadth.
Hence, Daigian clearly falls on this boundary. Put differently, you cannot be weaker than Daigian and still pass the test.
So therefore we know to a very high degree of accuracy that Daigian falls on this 37.5% boundary, or as close to it as a living channeler can apparently be.
From that point we can extrapolate the rest, as we know the number of SD's that cover the percentage of the population between 37.5% and 50%. It is 0.32SD exactly, if I recall correctly. One third of an SD, rounded for quick reference purposes.
The rest of the formula falls into place then, proving that a normal distribution is impossible, given the strength facts we are given in the series.
It doesn't matter who the weakest AS is. I agree that she is that marker, but its also irrelevant if its someone else because Daigain doesn't appear anywhere else with proportionality e.g. "Daigian was less than half as strong as Verin". I'm merely voicing a private theory that Daigian is probably a lot weaker than the woman above her. She spent more time as a novice and accepted than anyone in living memory. It doesn't affect anyone's theories though, but I honestly believe that Aes Sedai have strengths of between 10 and 30, that the 10 is the lower limit shared by several women, and that Daigian is on 6 or 8.
I can't remember which AS (Sheriam?), but one of them clearly said they allow no one who don't meet the strength standard to risk passing their test. They have a benchmark strength, and Daigian meets it, barely. The fact they have this standard and don't alter it is partly responsible for their dwindling numbers: they reject more and more candidates. Daigian is probably exceptional for the fact it's rare for women with barely meeting the standard to persevere, not get demolished by the prejudices against her strength and eventually pass the test. Nowhere it's suggested she's exceptional for having been allowed to pass the test despite not meeting the strength benchmark.
RJ was giving a reference to an inquiring reader. It would be totally worthless on its own if it excluded anyone with the shawl. It would be debatable if an Aes Sedai mentionned it in the series where it could be subject to contextual distortion or prejudices and all, but in a Q&A from RJ there's no doubt this includes all Aes Sedai.
The purpose of Daigian was manifold: serving as reference to give us a sense of how many women the WT rejects; implying that the testing puts too much weight on the ability to channel under stress (it's a good test to determine if a woman should be let to join a battlefield, it's a terrible test to judge if a woman should get the AS status) and blocks women who would have been fully trained as AS in the AOL - not to mention the dice are loaded because low standing women like Daigian need many times the intelligence, strength of character and sheer will of any high potential women to withstand a system which will seek to demolish their self-confidence and self-esteem. Her last purpose was to show how badly the Tower taught Nynaeve. Another purpose of Daigian, her first one in the series, was to show that Cadsuane had very different criteria than the WT's to judge the worth of sisters that she'd value a lot someone like Daigian over fairly strong (in OP) AS she judges weak in personality and absolutely unfit for the shawl. It's not that she believes the OP standards are wrong, it's that she believes the Tower no longer does its job at forming the stronger candidates. She considers the women strong in the power generally weak and flawed in character because their teachers made way too much of their OP potential and didn't care enough to hone the rest. It's why she's so judgmental with Nynaeve - the way she was (not) trained and educated properly by the sisters because she outclassed everyone alive in OP potential is to her symptomatic in an extreme way of what's wrong with the way today's AS are trained: you have to be weak to deserve the full exacting training/teaching everyone has a right to get, if you're too strong they'll turn corners, with Nynaeve to the point of sheer absurdity (AS barely bothered to train or teach her at all!). Nynaeve had a high potential even by AOL standards, and her likes had not been seen in over a 1000 years, and yet she's the woman the WT invested the least efforts in training properly (and not much better for Elayne and Egwene, also let too soon off the leash)... It's not only they put too much value on raw potential, it's also that you get the sense for many strong-ish sisters training Nynaeve properly would mean giving extra advantages to a woman who will soon stand above you. It also happened with women like Siuan and Moiraine, in a less extreme way. Moiraine had it right in NS though she didn't fully grasp the implications: your training really starts only once you've gained the shawl, and by then it's self-teaching. It's as if despite claiming the opposite the AS unconscious wish the stronger women to gain the shawl with the least additional advantages beside what they can't change - your raw potential - because the way the system works, you'll enter the hierarchy standing at an high rank right away, and they fear you, fear what will happen if they give you a full training that will make you formidable fairly young. The more devious and ambitious like Elaida even seek to bully recruits with more potential and put them in her debt, knowing it might come handy one day to balance the advantages you'll have over her. No wonder the more experienced sisters resent you rather then see in you someone to train the best they can. With Nynaeve that absurdity went overboard. The Yellows were wholly uninterested in her, knowing all too well she'd come to their Ajah and would get the shawl soon enough, and when she did she'd stand ridiculously higher than any but the Ajah leaders, and this is bad enough already, they have no interest to see you also enter their Ajah with a proper education and a potential honed as perfectly as the Tower can manage (the sort they gave to Daigian...), because then you'd be way too formidable to oppose. It's a vicious circle: the more it goes on, the less well-trained women are each generation (and not only in the OP - the weaves they all learn). Now it's up to a woman with mere months of OP training to make calls on how AS should be trained (and she's about to make a very bad call with her plan to raise as many new sisters as she can... she'll end up with a whole crop of even more badly trained/educated sisters after TG... as happened after the Trolloc Wars, leading to a sharp decline phase in the Tower. Except of course the whole idea is to justify some radical changes by the end of the series, so Egwene's bad calls are necessary plot devices).
Even in Cadsuane's days it was like this, though the vicious circle logic helping, it's probably worse now. Her real training, the one the envious sisters she had for teachers denied her, she got from the toothless wilder.
The whole absurdity of Nynaeve's situation is clearest when you consider she could have chosen any Ajah. She could have become the highest standing Green, able to pull rank in all sort of situations, with barely scraps of understanding of warfare. Do you see Nynaeve as a potential AS leader discussing military plans with the likes of Bryne or Bashere? She could have become the highest standing White sisters, an Ajah that fancies itself the group of finest logicians and philosophers, fountains of wisdom, yet Nynaeve would have had barely scraps of knowledge of logic and philosophy. She'd have been the highest ranking white... and the one the Ajah shivered every time she opened her mouth in public... She could have been the highest Gray... the one who would have run for cover if nobles asked her to judge their case involving intricates laws she'd never even heard of, or the highest Brown whose barely read any book and has no idea what being a scholar demands....
Egwene is about to create a whole lot of full Sisters just like that, rather than not awarding them a shawl they sure don't deserve any t ime soon but more wisely have experienced Sisters develop tests to measure which Novices or Accepted are fit to fight in TG.
It's in sharp contrast with the systems of the WO who give their best to any apprentice. The SF have somewhat the opposite flaw to the WT's system: they give all they have to their very strong but see the weakest ones as not worth such efforts.
This message last edited by DomA on 19/11/2012 at 02:42:23 PM
How many standard deviations is Lanfear
15/11/2012 06:04:39 PM
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Hmm...
15/11/2012 07:25:34 PM
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see we CAN agree on stuff
15/11/2012 07:56:12 PM
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18/11/2012 08:37:22 PM
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Re:
18/11/2012 11:07:17 PM
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Re:
19/11/2012 05:16:00 AM
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Re:
19/11/2012 03:13:01 PM
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They only reject 37.5%, not 62.5%
19/11/2012 03:19:19 PM
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Re: They only reject 37.5%, not 62.5%
19/11/2012 04:01:43 PM
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Re: They only reject 37.5%, not 62.5%
19/11/2012 09:04:04 PM
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Hmmm...
20/11/2012 02:08:40 AM
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Perhaps, but Egwene is also being a bit dramatic in the scene as she managed
20/11/2012 04:28:57 AM
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Nope...
20/11/2012 03:13:13 PM
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I believe she is being over dramatic
20/11/2012 03:26:24 PM
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Keep believing that...
20/11/2012 03:30:14 PM
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*shrugs*
20/11/2012 03:49:10 PM
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Tired and forkroot are the same now?
20/11/2012 03:55:22 PM
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No it's the literary device
20/11/2012 04:04:28 PM
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Impossible. Daigian is exactly 0.32SD below the mean
19/11/2012 11:06:04 AM
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You keep saying that, but it is either a linear or a non-linear distribution
19/11/2012 09:09:32 PM
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That's the whole point. Thanks for finally seeing it.
19/11/2012 09:43:27 PM
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keep believing that ... but you making up numbers isn't really relevant *NM*
20/11/2012 04:29:44 AM
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Please show me a number that is made up. The 0.32SD for Daigian is a rule of statistics.
20/11/2012 07:15:48 AM
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Ugh. I hate power level discussions. For real world applications, it should be kind of meaningless
16/11/2012 10:28:49 PM
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I don't really agree
18/11/2012 08:40:53 PM
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Perhaps, but we've seen that a MUCH weaker Channeler can win in a duel
19/11/2012 09:13:48 PM
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Re: Perhaps, but we've seen that a MUCH weaker Channeler can win in a duel
20/11/2012 08:10:01 AM
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Since I've proven that it's not a normal distribution in units of absolute strength, SDs don't apply
17/11/2012 07:48:21 PM
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You have proven nothing, except that you have an opinion *NM*
18/11/2012 02:21:35 AM
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You simply don't get it. It is mathematically a fact. There is no opinion involved.
18/11/2012 02:19:40 PM
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Only because you've assigned numeric values. That you created.
18/11/2012 02:40:51 PM
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It doesn't matter what figure you use...
18/11/2012 03:01:56 PM
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What if Daigian is one third Lanfear's strength?
18/11/2012 04:37:58 PM
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Sure you can
18/11/2012 10:09:31 PM
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Re: Sure you can
18/11/2012 10:54:50 PM
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You're right, though its 37.5%
19/11/2012 12:21:29 AM
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Oops, typo!
19/11/2012 02:54:25 AM
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Again, not possible, due to Daigian being just 0.3SD below the Mean
19/11/2012 08:37:01 AM
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Egwene is definitely not 2x Amys...
19/11/2012 04:05:12 PM
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Re: Egwene is definitely not 2x Amys...
19/11/2012 05:55:02 PM
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Egwene is about as strong as Melaine and Amys combined
19/11/2012 09:19:50 PM
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Re: Egwene is about as strong as Melaine and Amys combined
20/11/2012 02:11:26 AM
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Forkroot in every case
20/11/2012 04:32:26 AM
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No!
20/11/2012 03:15:16 PM
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I'm not going to go re-read the books to you on this
20/11/2012 03:39:46 PM
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You need to read it for yourself, since you're completely confused.
20/11/2012 03:54:26 PM
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Not going to argue this with you.
20/11/2012 04:09:44 PM
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Your own example disproved your point...
20/11/2012 04:39:25 PM
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let's see, she's both asleep and would need hours to regain her strength
20/11/2012 04:43:17 PM
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Enough!
20/11/2012 05:04:06 PM
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LOL ... whatever. You go on believing that ... no one else sees it this way. *NM*
20/11/2012 05:20:52 PM
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Re: Your own example disproved your point...
20/11/2012 05:10:15 PM
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Barasine + Katerine isn't that much less than
20/11/2012 05:26:31 PM
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Re: Egwene is definitely not 2x Amys...
20/11/2012 02:26:47 AM
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Re: Egwene is definitely not 2x Amys...
20/11/2012 09:03:40 AM
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Re: Egwene is definitely not 2x Amys...
20/11/2012 02:59:08 PM
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None of this is backed by any evidence...
20/11/2012 03:24:12 PM
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who said Cadsuane was 1.5x Moiraine or more?
20/11/2012 04:03:13 PM
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Nope...
20/11/2012 04:41:35 PM
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wrong
20/11/2012 04:48:50 PM
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Better evidence? LOL!
20/11/2012 03:18:55 PM
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Huh? How did you come to that conclusion?
20/11/2012 04:40:56 PM
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BEcause Cadsuane is close on the heels of Egwene?
20/11/2012 05:10:50 PM
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I'm not arguing that. I agree that Cadsuane is pretty close to Egwene
20/11/2012 05:50:34 PM
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Interesting, but let's go with your figures...
19/11/2012 06:54:54 AM
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Indeed
19/11/2012 08:16:44 AM
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Rand is sort of a special case
20/11/2012 04:25:02 AM
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Regarding Mesaana...
20/11/2012 08:42:56 AM
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You continue to mix two things
20/11/2012 03:24:44 PM
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No
20/11/2012 04:54:19 PM
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You are mistaken
20/11/2012 05:04:40 PM
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Probably, but the AS have no idea what 37.5% means
19/11/2012 02:59:26 AM
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It's irrelevant
19/11/2012 03:46:42 AM
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Agreed. Daigian is the marker of the absolute bottom of Aes Sedai strength.
19/11/2012 06:55:41 AM
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Daigian
19/11/2012 08:12:19 AM
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It is a direct marker due to RJ's quote
19/11/2012 08:50:26 AM
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You missed my point
19/11/2012 09:08:42 AM
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Re: You missed my point
19/11/2012 02:18:33 PM
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Asmodean would never have made the comment about 13 weakest AS
20/11/2012 04:41:11 AM
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Re: Asmodean would never have made the comment about 13 weakest AS
20/11/2012 09:07:49 AM
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Re: Sure you can
19/11/2012 09:22:09 AM
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Care to explain this...
19/11/2012 05:06:28 PM
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Indeed
20/11/2012 07:16:37 AM
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Explained far better than I ever could. Bravo.
20/11/2012 07:30:29 AM
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Well duh.
20/11/2012 02:57:24 PM
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Incorrect.
20/11/2012 04:28:07 PM
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No
20/11/2012 04:44:16 PM
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You're integrating without lower limits...
20/11/2012 02:55:06 PM
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We are not talking about a normal distribution in any case
20/11/2012 04:44:24 AM
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Re: We are not talking about a normal distribution in any case
20/11/2012 07:02:47 AM
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You must tell me of this special math...
20/11/2012 03:10:09 PM
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Re: You must tell me of this special math...
20/11/2012 04:29:40 PM
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Morghase is a placeholder...
20/11/2012 04:45:42 PM
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Well...
18/11/2012 08:43:59 PM
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Re: Well...
19/11/2012 03:40:44 PM
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Wow.
19/11/2012 03:53:47 PM
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Well then you're both wrong I'm afraid
19/11/2012 06:09:36 PM
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Re: Well then you're both wrong I'm afraid
19/11/2012 07:42:58 PM
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this is why I think all of the Forsaken are very close in Power
20/11/2012 04:51:20 AM
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Re: this is why I think all of the Forsaken are very close in Power
20/11/2012 02:45:18 PM
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I think RJ went out of his way to keep strength a bit of a mystery
20/11/2012 08:42:44 PM
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Math gurus...Is it possible to find the missing variable...
21/11/2012 05:12:24 PM
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the problem is that the Mean is not going to tell us much really
22/11/2012 02:55:03 AM
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Re: the problem is that the Mean is not going to tell us much really
22/11/2012 03:15:33 AM
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I do not think you can calculate the Mean without knowing the Units of Power
22/11/2012 03:53:59 AM
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