The Practice of Statistics
F05
Robert Page
Statistics, by far the most pervasive application of mathematics in modern society, is a standard analytical tool in such diverse fields as biology, psychology, medicine, business, and marketing, and the determination and manipulation of public opinion. Its apparent mathematical invincibility belies the ease with which it can be abused to assist corporate, political, and even scientific agendas. In addition to critiquing the uses of statistics that we encounter in the media and our professional fields, we will develop an ability to use statistics responsibly to reflect the information implied in data. Specific topics include descriptive statistics, distributions, hypothesis testing and confidence intervals, regression and correlation, and analysis of variance.