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Product Description
Product Description
Modern statistics is very different from the dry and dusty discipline of the popular imagination. In its place is an exciting subject which uses deep theory and powerful software tools to shed light and enable understanding. And it sheds this light on all aspects of our lives, enabling astronomers to explore the origins of the universe, archaeologists to investigate ancient civilisations, governments to understand how to benefit and improve society, and businesses to learn how best to provide goods and services. Aimed at readers with no prior mathematical knowledge, this Very Short Introduction explores and explains how statistics work, and how we can decipher them.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although excellent overall, the VSI series is variable in quality, with some gems (Psychology, Anthropology, et al) and some dross (Architecture, Locke, et al). This particular entry is somewhere in the middle. It starts very well but gets bogged down somewhat toward the end.
A problem that runs through the series is the inordinate number of typos - the proofreading in the earlier editions was very poor. OUP seems to have fixed this, and I am happy to say I saw no errors in this book.
But another recurrent problem with the series - poor use of illustrations - does afflict this book, except that here it is simply the paucity of illustrations that is the problem. Statistics is a very visual subject and there are ideas which are very simple when presented in graphical form but extremely difficult otherwise. In the second half of this book, from chapter 4 onwards, when things get technical, there is a need for a great many illustrations, almost on every page. In fact, there are only eight illustrations in the entire book. Ironically, three of those are in a brief section called Statistical Graphics and do not relate to anything described in the text but are used simply to illustrate how helpful graphics can be! Hence, the second half of the book is much heavier going than it need be.
There is however much that is good in the book. There is a useful emphasis on the difficulty and importance of collecting good quality data. This, and a reference to the Sally Clark case, are among the ways the author grounds the subject in reality. He presents a good case for statistics being at the very heart of a great many disciplines.
So, a good short introduction, spoiled by having too few illustrations.
[PeterReeve]
A problem that runs through the series is the inordinate number of typos - the proofreading in the earlier editions was very poor. OUP seems to have fixed this, and I am happy to say I saw no errors in this book.
But another recurrent problem with the series - poor use of illustrations - does afflict this book, except that here it is simply the paucity of illustrations that is the problem. Statistics is a very visual subject and there are ideas which are very simple when presented in graphical form but extremely difficult otherwise. In the second half of this book, from chapter 4 onwards, when things get technical, there is a need for a great many illustrations, almost on every page. In fact, there are only eight illustrations in the entire book. Ironically, three of those are in a brief section called Statistical Graphics and do not relate to anything described in the text but are used simply to illustrate how helpful graphics can be! Hence, the second half of the book is much heavier going than it need be.
There is however much that is good in the book. There is a useful emphasis on the difficulty and importance of collecting good quality data. This, and a reference to the Sally Clark case, are among the ways the author grounds the subject in reality. He presents a good case for statistics being at the very heart of a great many disciplines.
So, a good short introduction, spoiled by having too few illustrations.
[PeterReeve]
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Statistical analysis underlies much of the modern scientific research. In fact, it is not too much of a stretch to say that many scientific fields have come of age and many other fields have become "scientific" thanks to the extensive use of statistics that they employ. The turning point seems to have been the advent of modern computer. For the first time in history the raw computational power has not been an issue any more, and the only limits on the quality of research became the amount of data that can be collected and the understanding of statistical methods that need to be employed for analysis.
This very short introduction deals with statistics as a method for analyzing empirical data. As such, it does not present statistics as a dry and self-contained mathematical subject. All the statistical methods are introduced in conjunction with particular practical problems that those methods are developed to address. The author, David Hand, is trying to convey the message that statistics is as much of an art as it is a rigorous mathematical method. No two research projects are the same, so no simple statistical procedure could be used to describe them all. A careful analysis of the problem at hand and a judicial choice of statistical methods are the most likely to yield the most useful information.
The book is divided in seven chapters and each one deals with a particular statistical concept or a particular way in which the statistics is used. The chapters are short but informative, and the whole book makes for one smooth read. It will not overburden you with mathematical detail, and it can be used as a springboard for further reading into the field of statistics.
This very short introduction deals with statistics as a method for analyzing empirical data. As such, it does not present statistics as a dry and self-contained mathematical subject. All the statistical methods are introduced in conjunction with particular practical problems that those methods are developed to address. The author, David Hand, is trying to convey the message that statistics is as much of an art as it is a rigorous mathematical method. No two research projects are the same, so no simple statistical procedure could be used to describe them all. A careful analysis of the problem at hand and a judicial choice of statistical methods are the most likely to yield the most useful information.
The book is divided in seven chapters and each one deals with a particular statistical concept or a particular way in which the statistics is used. The chapters are short but informative, and the whole book makes for one smooth read. It will not overburden you with mathematical detail, and it can be used as a springboard for further reading into the field of statistics.
Format:Paperback
An excellent concise account of how statistics is used in a wide range of practical applications. The book is therefore for the interested general reader. Some of the ways that errors can arise in conclusions from statistical investigations are described. Although there is some theory, the book is not a text book and will not suit anyone wishing to learn how to do statistical analyses. Indeed the chapter on probability is quite difficult: there are easier-to-follow treatments elsewhere.
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