Statistics and Data Analysis: From Elementary to Intermediate, 1st edition

This text was written for Junior/Senior or graduate level students with a background in calculus who are required to take one course in statistics. The goal of the text is to introduce future engineers, scientists, economists, applied mathematicians, computer scientists, high school math teachers, experimental psychologists, and others to the concepts and methods of modern statistics and its applications to a wide variety of fields. The text emphasizes computer assisted data analyses as well as the mathematical bases of the underlying statistical methods.

• Review of Probability.

  • Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive review of probability topics for students who have taken a previous course in probability. This chapter can also be used to teach a condensed course in probability.

• Early chapter on Collecting Data (Ch. 3).

  • Most books ignore the importance of data collection in their rush to teach data analysis. However, if data collection is faulty and biased, no amount of data analysis will give valid results. This early chapter on methods of collecting data—including sample surveys and designed experiments—prepares students to study the details of data analysis. Ex.___

• Resampling Methods.

  • An introductory section on modern, computer intensive, resampling methods such as jackknife and bootstrap, is included in the section on non-parametric methods. Ex. Section 14.6

• Extensive use of real data.

  • Real data-based examples and exercises permeate the book to demonstrate how statistical methods and techniques are used in decision-making in diverse disciplines. Data sources include: The New England Journal of Medicine, The American Statistician, Technometrics, US News and World Report, Science, Industrial Quality Control, European Bulletin of Cognitive Psychology, among others. A data disk is packaged in the back of every copy of the text. Data files are saved as ASCII, Minitab, and Excel files to provide for maximum flexibility in choice of statistical package used. Ex___

• Focus on Interpretation of Computer Output.

  • The computer is an indispensable tool for modern statistical analysis. It is useful not just for the tedious task of number crunching but for plotting informative graphics in a fast and interactive manner. Graphs and summary statistics from MINITAB, and sometimes SAS and SYSTAT, are integrated throughout the text. The focus in this text is on teaching students to interpret the output. Ex.___

• Over 250 Worked Examples, Over 600 Exercises—Many real data-based. Exercise sets are placed at the end of each chapter and are organized by section. Real data-based exercises with data sets provided on the data disk are marked with a <F41559M><< symbol.

  • Exercises ask relevant questions that need to be answered based on the data provided using statistical methods learned in that section. Most exercises guide a student through several steps, each step addressing a different aspect of analysis. The emphasis is on urging the student to think critically and to interpret the analysis, not just calculate numbers. Ex.___

• Advanced Exercises—Offer flexibility for graduate courses. Advanced exercises are given at the end of each chapter. They typically involve simple mathematical proofs and generalizations of some results or more extensive data analyses requiring methods from different sections of the chapter.

  • Many of these advanced exercises give students glimpses into topics beyond the scope of the present text. As such, they may be assigned to graduates students or bright, motivated undergraduates. Ex.___

• Summary Tables.

  • Probability distributions, confidence intervals, and hypothesis tests are summarized in tables for easy reference and review. E