Название: Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, 10th edition
Издательство: W.H. Freeman, Macmillan
Год: 2021
Страниц: 1634
Язык: английский
Формат: epub
Размер: 90.0 MB

Statistics is more than just a collection of techniques and formulas. Introduction to the Practice of Statistics shows you how to produce and interpret data in the context of the real world—doing the same type of work as statisticians do in all kinds of businesses and institutions do every day.

Statistics is the science of data. Introduction to the Practice of Statistics (IPS) is an introductory text based on this principle. We present methods of basic statistics in a way that emphasizes working with data and mastering statistical reasoning. IPS is elementary in mathematical level but conceptually rich in statistical ideas. After completing a course based on our text, we would like students to be able to think objectively about conclusions drawn from data and use statistical methods in their own work.

In IPS, we combine attention to basic statistical concepts with a comprehensive presentation of the elementary statistical methods that students will find useful in their work. IPS has been successful for several reasons:

• IPS examines the nature of modern statistical practice at a level suitable for beginners. We focus on the production and analysis of data as well as the traditional topics of probability and inference.

• IPS has a logical overall progression, so data production and data analysis are a major focus, and inference is treated as a tool that helps us draw conclusions from data in an appropriate way.

• IPS presents data analysis as more than a collection of techniques for exploring data. We emphasize systematic ways of thinking about data. Simple principles guide the analysis: always plot your data; look for overall patterns and deviations from them; when looking at the overall pattern of a distribution for one variable, consider shape, center, and spread; for relationships between two variables, consider form, direction, and strength; always ask whether a relationship between variables is influenced by other variables lurking in the background. We warn students about pitfalls in clear cautionary discussions.

• IPS uses real examples to drive the exposition. Students learn the technique of least-squares regression and how to interpret the regression slope. They also learn the conceptual ties between regression and correlation, interpreting individual points far from the line, and the importance of looking for influential observations.

• IPS is aware of current developments both in statistical science and in teaching statistics. Brief, optional Beyond the Basics sections give quick overviews of topics such as density estimation, the bootstrap, data mining, meta-analysis, nonlinear regression, and regression trees. In addition, Chapter 16 gives an elementary introduction to the bootstrap and other computer-intensive statistical methods.