Brief History of the Most Pleasing Rectangle Web Poll

As told by Luís Madureira:

Data collected in Poll 1 (from 1/1/99 to 9/4/99) were analyzed by students of classes ES1, ES2 and ES3, 10th form, in E.S.C.U. (a secondary school in Lisbon, Portugal) using basic statistic methods (Responsible teacher Luís Madureira). Vote in Poll 1.

Meanwhile Jim Loy made a suggestion: "Next year you might want to see if you get similar results with the same rectangles lying on their sides (like a landscape picture)."

That's why I decided to work on Poll 2, published in Jul, 26th, 99. Vote in Poll 2

Finally, Jim wrote to me on 2/08/2000: "I see that the results of your two rectangle polls are quite different. Maybe you would like to show the results of the two poll next to each other. Also, maybe your students might want to guess why the results are different. Maybe it is because the shape of a rectangle (ratio of the adjacent sides) looks different when the rectangle is rotated. In other words, a rotated rectangle may not look like the same rectangle."

I will now show the results of Poll 1 and Poll 2 (now at Results of Poll 2) and build a "no rectangle" (yet equivalent) line segment new Poll - Poll 3. In this Poll you are asked to divide a segment into two UNEQUAL parts. Choose one of the 6 options. Just that!

Jim Loy continues the story:

In 2003, Sr. Madureira wrote asking me to take over the poll. The only problems were that I was busy and that I did not know how to use forms (the polls were HTML forms provided by FreePolls.com). But this would be a good chance to learn about forms. I found that FreePolls are indeed free, but I would either have to show their banner ad or pay a small amount per month (certainly worth it as the data is automatically processed and shown). I have resisted showing banners in the past, and I have very little money. And so I chose to process the data myself. The problem is that it may take a day or two for me to adjust the histograms.

I have simplified the format of these pages somewhat. Sr. Madureira made extensive use of tables and different font sizes. And I have discontinued Poll 3, as I am mainly concerned about the rectangles and the comments from visitors like you, and the purposes of poll 3 were vague. So polls 1 and 2 continue, and you are invited to comment. In particular, I would like to hear opinions on why do the results of Polls 1 and 2 differ? You can express your opinion on that on the page giving the Results of Poll 2.

4/30/03: The poll officially arrived at jimloy.com. On the left is a picture of the visitor counter at the old site. Here are the poll results on that day: Results on 4/30/03.