Statistics (Brief Insights)

by David J. Hand

Modern statistics is very different from the dry and dusty discipline of the popular imagination. Author David J. Hand reveals it to be an exciting subject that uses deep theory and powerful software tools to shed light on all aspects of our lives—enabling astronomers to explore the origins of the universe, archaeologists to investigate ancient civilizations, governments to learn how to benefit society, and businesses to run efficiently. Hand clearly explains how statistics work, and how we can decipher them.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2010

About the author

David J. Hand is Senior Research Investigator and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London, and Chief Scientific Advisor to Winton Capital Management. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a recipient of the Guy Medal of the Royal Statistical Society. He has served (twice) as President of the Royal Statistical Society, and is on the Board of the UK Statistics Authority. He has published 300 scientific papers and 25 books: his next book, The Improbability Principle, is due out in February 2014. He has broad research interests in areas including classification, data mining, anomaly detection, and the foundations of statistics. His applications interests include psychology, physics, and the retail credit industry - he and his research group won the 2012 Credit Collections and Risk Award for Contributions to the Credit Industry. He was made OBE for services to research and innovation in 2013.

Reviews

[Moon Captain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am currently in part 2 of a general statistics class at community college. There is no instructor for my class, no lecture period, because it's all online. This book helped me understand in a general way the purpose of all the tests and how data are analysed. It was a quick and easy read and I'm glad I found it

[Judith]

It's not the textbook we're using, but I figure another new Stats book from the library couldn't hurt.

[James D Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valuable read, not profound.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't read all of this, I was looking for statistical mechanicanics ( which is actually probability )

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a solid book. I enjoy learning about mat. I just wish I understood more of what I read. I need to read a lot more about math.