ABSTRACT
You may be wondering “What is statistics?”, “Who uses it?”, and “Why do I need to study this material?” Statistics is the process of discovering more about a topic by collecting information and subsequently analyzing that information. In essence, statistics is concerned with methods for collecting, organizing, summarizing, analyzing, and presenting data. Data-laden information is present in virtually every sector of society, and the need to understand our surroundings is a basic human need. More to the point of why you, the reader, might want to study this material can be answered in one of two ways. First, if you are a student, you are required to study this material as part of your major because there are certain topics that are deemed important by your teachers. Second, no matter what your stage in life, you desire to have some modicum of control in decision making and want to learn more about how probability and statistics help people, corporations, and governmental agencies make decisions/policies. Even if your reason for reading this material is because it is required, it is the authors’ fervent hope that your ability to make sound decisions will be strengthened through the material in this book.
