ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and illustrates a few common statistical procedures. It provides the reader with a review of some of the fundamental concepts in statistical inference and the correct meaning of some commonly used terms. The chapter focuses less on the mathematical justification of the procedures than on the correct interpretation of the test results. Proper sampling techniques are essential. Well-conceived and carefully carried out sampling procedures should lead to a set of measurements which can be thought of as a miniature replica of the population itself. Over the years numerous curves have been developed to serve as models for population distributions. These models are constructed in such a way that the area under the curve can be equated with probability. Probably the most widely used of all models is the family of normal distributions. Measurements whose variability can be attributed to a large number of chance factors can be modeled quite accurately with a normal distribution.
