The Swing Question
Always willing and ready to respond to great questions and queries, we at Concepts.Inc. were delighted when a letter came into our office asking, “When you get a push on the swings in which the pusher runs underneath the pushee, is it called Underdog or Underduck?”
A perplexing query indeed.
A perplexing query indeed.
To solve this problem a children’s residential camp was surveyed and the results are published here. We found more than we were expecting to find. Our experiment was designed to see what word to describe the under-push was more popular for our generation growing up. Our hypothesis was that for most regions in Southern Ontario, Underdog was the preferred term, but for Hastings County and immediate surrounding areas, Underduck was used. Hastings County and immediate area that was lumped together for the purposes of this study, is located right in the middle of the Southern Ontario Hwy. 401 stretch, centring around Belleville and extending into the Muskoka area. We included slight variations on each term and considered them to be the same. For example, Underdog and Underdoggie are the same, as well Underduck and Underduckie were considered as the same.
Map Showing highlighted "Underduck" Region
A total of 58 people were polled, with an average age of the participants being 18.5 years old. There was a complete fifty-fifty split between Underdog and Underduck in respondents. There was almost a fifty-fifty split between males and females as well. Of the Underduck respondents, 82% reported having grew up, or spent their formative playground days in the Hastings County region. 97% of respondents who answered Underdog lived outside of the Hastings region. We can see then, that there is statistically significant evidence that suggests that Hastings County is unique in their choice of word for the underneath push.
During polling, heated debates would break out between respondents over which word was correct. The problem was that neither side was willing to consider the other, as the word they used has been with them since childhood. To break a truth that has been with a person for so long would be devastating. Whatever word you believe in, the bottom line is that it is an effective way to get higher on a swing.
A total of 58 people were polled, with an average age of the participants being 18.5 years old. There was a complete fifty-fifty split between Underdog and Underduck in respondents. There was almost a fifty-fifty split between males and females as well. Of the Underduck respondents, 82% reported having grew up, or spent their formative playground days in the Hastings County region. 97% of respondents who answered Underdog lived outside of the Hastings region. We can see then, that there is statistically significant evidence that suggests that Hastings County is unique in their choice of word for the underneath push.
During polling, heated debates would break out between respondents over which word was correct. The problem was that neither side was willing to consider the other, as the word they used has been with them since childhood. To break a truth that has been with a person for so long would be devastating. Whatever word you believe in, the bottom line is that it is an effective way to get higher on a swing.
Peter.Concepts.Inc.
posted by Glen. @ 11:29 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Dear Irene..I mean Peter,
I was wondering if you could show more evidence of your statistically significant conclusion, perhaps a p-value or chi-squared value. And what level of significance were were refering to? 0.05? In addition, if you could please discuss the 95% confidence interval with a clear interpretation? That should be sufficient. Thanks.
Statistically Yours,
ERIN ahahahaha MUAHAHAHAHA
ducks forever
This is incredible...I have recently moved to cornwall ont..and here they call it an underdog....I never laughed so hard..because where I grew up in British Columbia its called an underduck....but now I rest and know its a dual term...my friend cindy and I have such a blast teasing each other...thanks for the survey...
I was searching for this exact topic, and being from Ontario, I thought it quite topical!
Nice work.
Funny the things you will find on the web. My husband and I are having a great debate over this. However, I can make a case for the terminology "Underduck"
You push the swing, and then you DUCK UNDER it. What kind of case can be made for Underdog?
The case for underdog: it's what people say. There need be no logic behind it. Many many people grew up calling it an underdog or underdoggie and when people like that hear "underduck" it does not mean what the speaker intends, or anything, to them. Like you call something soda, I call it pop, so what?
Fuck this guy - it's underduck.
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