Facts and fictions about the analytic hierarchy process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), introduced by Thomas Saaty (1980), is an effective tool for dealing with complex decision making, and may aid the decision maker to set priorities and make the best decision. By reducing complex decisions to a series of pairwise comparisons, and then synthesizing the results, the AHP helps to capture both subjective and objective aspects of a decision. In a...

Cloning Facts and Fictions

Facts and fictions

"We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be"-George Bernard Shaw "Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts."-Bernard M. Baruch "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd, indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind,...

A guide to facts and fictions about climate change

A guide to facts and fictions about climate change It has become fashionable in some parts of the UK media to portray the scientific evidence that has been collected about climate change and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities as an exaggeration. Some articles have claimed that scientists are ignoring uncertainties in our understanding of the climate and the factors tha...

Systematic Errors: Facts and Fictions

The treatment of systematic errors is often mishandled. This is due to lack of understanding and education, based on a fundamental ambiguity as to what is meant by the term. This note addresses the problems and offers guidance to good practice. 1 RIVAL DEFINITIONS: UNCERTAINTY AND MISTAKE 1.1 Random Uncertainties and Mistakes The word error is used in several ways. The everyday dictionary defin...