ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the study of the theory of statistics with the concept of probability. Most of us have a good grasp of probability as illustrated by the popularity of games of chance such as bridge, poker, roulette, and dice, all of which involve the assessment of probability. It turns out that the theory of probability is a good base for the study of statistics – in fact each is the inverse subject of the other. The duality between probability and statistics can be expressed more generally in the following way. In both subjects the first step in solving a problem is to set up a mathematical model for the physical situation which may involve one or more parameters. One of the basic ideas in probability is that of a random variable. In many cases this is simply the numerical variable under consideration.
