• Question: can u really see into the future?

    Asked by tom0901 to Carol, Ellie, John, Philip, Rebecca on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: John Welford

      John Welford answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      I don’t think anybody can really “see” into the future. There is a lot of science that tries to predict what will happen in the future based on what has happened in the past and how things are currently.

      Especially for things like the stock market, if anyone were able to accurately predict the future they would be millionaires! For this there are lots of mathematicians whose job it is to try to predict what will happen to the price of stocks and shares. They can sometimes do an good job and make their company some money, but it is really complicated stuff.

    • Photo: Rebecca Lacey

      Rebecca Lacey answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Hi tom0901

      i agree with John that you can’t “see” into the future. I work with some Statisticians who do lots of complicated maths to create predictions of what might happen in the future, which is really interesting.

      For example I work with someone who makes predictions about life expectancy and how long people will live and this information is used by a life insurance company.

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