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2 - Introduction to statistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Robert de Levie
Affiliation:
Bowdoin College, Maine
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Summary

Gaussian statistics

Analyzing a number of observations, each subject to some experimental error, in an effort to obtain a more reliable answer from a multitude of measurements than can presumably be obtained from a single observation, is part of statistics. For example, while the age at which you, my dear reader, will die, is usually not well known in advance, the commercial providers of life insurance need only know the average life expectancy of your cohort (the group of persons of comparable age, gender, socioeconomic group, etc.) in order to compute a profitable premium, on the assumption that they will insure a large enough group so that the effects of early and late deaths will cancel each other out.

The underlying assumption in statistical analysis is that the experimental error is not merely repeated in each measurement, otherwise there would be no gain in multiple observations. For example, when the ‘pure’ chemical we use as a standard is contaminated (say, with water of crystallization), so that its purity is less than 100%, no amount of chemical calibration with that standard will show the existence of such a bias, even though all conclusions drawn from the measurements will contain consequent, determinate or systematic errors.

Type
Chapter
Information
How to Use Excel® in Analytical Chemistry
And in General Scientific Data Analysis
, pp. 39 - 89
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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  • Introduction to statistics
  • Robert de Levie, Bowdoin College, Maine
  • Book: How to Use Excel® in Analytical Chemistry
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808265.003
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  • Introduction to statistics
  • Robert de Levie, Bowdoin College, Maine
  • Book: How to Use Excel® in Analytical Chemistry
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808265.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction to statistics
  • Robert de Levie, Bowdoin College, Maine
  • Book: How to Use Excel® in Analytical Chemistry
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808265.003
Available formats
×