Teach Yourself Statistics
It is the aim of this book to help those who have to teach themselves some Statistics to an understanding of some of the fundamental ideas and mathematics involved. Once that has been acquired, problems of application are more readily and successfully tackled. For this reason, and for reasons of space, the concentration has been on fundamentals. But Statistics is a dynamic, developing science. New techniques, new methods of analysis are constantly arising and influencing even the foundations. The reader is urged to bear this fact in mind all the time, particularly, when reading Chapters VI and IX.
The standard of mathematics assumed is not high. Occasion¬ ally algebra may appear to be a little tedious, but it is not difficult. Whenever possible, references to Mr. Abbott’s books in this series, especially Teach Yourself Calculus, have been given, and the reader is strongly advised to follow them up. Where this has not been possible and new ground has been broken, a note has been added at the end of the appropriate chapter. Continuous bivariate distributions, including the normal bivariate distribution, which involves double integrals, have been treated in an appendix. In case notation
Lastly, to the staff of the English Universities Press and to the printers I wish to express my appreciation of the care they have bestowed upon this book; to my sister, Miss Nancy Goodman, to Messrs. F. T. Chaffer, Alec Bishop, and Leonard Cutts, and to the late Dr. J. Wishart, my thanks are due for their encouragement and suggestions; while to all those who have drawn my attention to mistakes and errors, especially Dr. P. G. Moore, the Rev. Liam Grimley, and Dr. van de Geer, I express my gratitude; wherever possible the necessary corrections have been made.
Author: Richard Goodman
Publication Date: 1972