Conversational Statistics

COPYRIGHT 1974, HEWLETT PACKARD COMPUTER CURRICULLUM, EDITED BY CHRISTINE DOERR, HEWLETT PACKARD. The book is designed to introduce statistics as a tool for solving practical problems of management. The treatment of the underlying theory is almost entirely intuitive, i.e. there is very little Mathematical notation and no reliance on mathematical ideas beyond those ordinarily covered in the first eight grades of school. The approach reflects the many years of experience by the author in teaching statistics with a heavy emphasis on theory. He found that few students were sufficiently intrigued by statistical theory to study it with the enthusiasm needed to tackle practical applications, and even fewer are comfortable with mathematical reasoning even when their formal background includes a fair amount of work in college-level mathematics. This book is based on the conclusion that genuine interest in statistical theory and mathematical reasoning is usually best aroused by exposing students to applications first.