Basic Statistics (PB)

This book Basic Statistics is the result of several decades' experience of the authors of teaching statistics courses at G.B. Pant University, Pantnagar and Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina. Basic statistics is a required course for undergraduate programs in most universities and institutes. This book has fourteen chapters. The first two chapters of the book introduce the subject of statistics emphasizing applications in different disciplines, particularly in the field of agriculture sciences. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the developments of statistical concepts. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the collection, classification, and tabulation of data. Chapters 5 and 6 present the diagrammatic and graphical representation of data. Chapters 7, 8 and 9 discuss the numerical characterization of data including measures of central tendency, location, dispersion, skewness, and kurtosis. The measures also include the less popular ones such as trimmed mean, geometric and harmonic means, and coefficient of variation. Chapter 9 covers the exploratory analysis by means of boxplots, stem-leaf plots, and shape of distributions along with the applications of mean and variance in identifying the possible unusual values in the data. Chapter 10 presents methods of analysis for bivariate and multivariate datasets including the methods of correlation and regression analyses. Emphasis is more on the linear correlation and regression; however, a very brief discussion is provided for multivariate data to satisfy the curiosity of the students. Chapter 11 studies randomness by using the basic concepts of probability and probability distributions for discrete and continuous random variables such as binomial, Poisson, and normal distributions. Chapter 12 deals with the dual concepts of statistical inference including estimation and testing of hypotheses. Use of both point estimation and interval estimation is presented in this chapter. One sample test of hypothesis, Chi square test for qualitative data and the analysis of variance are discussed for testing hypotheses. Care has been taken so that students are able to properly interpret confidence intervals and draw appropriate conclusions from the test of hypothesis. The last two chapters of the book deal with the basic methods of primary data collection by designing experiments and planning sample surveys.

All the time, the emphasis has been on the practical applications of statistical techniques and drawing meaningful conclusions in the layperson's language from the analysis making use of appropriate data visualization and summarization. Although the examples are mostly from the field of agriculture sciences, the techniques covered in the book are applicable to other branches of behavioral and physical sciences.