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Topic: Best book on Statistics fundamentals?  (Read 4701 times)

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Offline user11

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Best book on Statistics fundamentals?
« on: May 29, 2014, 03:49:31 PM »
Hi I’m looking for a good introdoctury book for learning Statistics (self-study) which achieves to explain the concepts very clearly .

What I’m looking for in a statistics book
My goal with the book is not to achieve some abstract mathematical skills, but rather to be able to  use and understand how to use statistics in Science studyies (Biology, chemistry etc.). I’d love a book that explains every subject 
An example would be ”Standard Deviation”: I’d love a book giving you a visul image of what standard diviation would look like in a statistical exapmple (some visual graph) instead of just launching into the definition with heave mat.  In addition explaining why  and when it’s useful – giving examples with clear conclsions.

So far I’ve thought about buying one of the following 2 books –
1.   Statistics in plain english
2.   The complete idiots guide to statistics 2nd edition


I’d love to hear your recommendations or comments and what you find to be the best book for selfstudying statistics and explaining it clearly and visually.



Offline Corribus

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Re: Best book on Statistics fundamentals?
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2014, 04:34:05 PM »
For Chemical analysis I like Statistics and Chemometrics for Analytical Chemistry, by Miller and Miller.  It's simple and straightforward without a lot of unnecessary fluff.

http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Chemometrics-Analytical-Chemistry-6th/dp/0273730428/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401395614&sr=1-1&keywords=statistics+and+chemometrics+for+analytical+chemistry
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

Offline user11

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Re: Best book on Statistics fundamentals?
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2014, 11:37:50 AM »
Looks interesting, however it seems to be lacking figures and pictures demonstrating the concepts.
I'm talking about great visual figures like this http://www.mathsisfun.com/data/standard-deviation.html

Just a book full of them :)
 

Offline Yggdrasil

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Re: Best book on Statistics fundamentals?
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2014, 02:54:04 PM »
It's not a book, but the journal Nature Methods has been running a monthly column that discusses various statistical concepts from a practical point of view (i.e. for an audience of experimental scientists in biology and chemistry).  You can find a list of the columns here: http://blogs.nature.com/methagora/2013/08/giving_statistics_the_attention_it_deserves.html  In fact, the very first column in the series covers the topic of standard deviation and uncertainty: http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v10/n9/full/nmeth.2613.html

Offline user11

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Re: Best book on Statistics fundamentals?
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2014, 05:48:11 AM »
I've spent hours looking around and I think I am going to go with the 2 books

Elementary statistics a step by step approach.  This book has many detailed calculation examples and visual figures.
http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Statistics-Step-Approach/dp/0073534978/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1403603115&sr=8-3&keywords=statistics+step+by+step

Statistics unplugged.  This book has a wordy way of explaining each equation in statistics (how to interprete it)
http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Unplugged-Sally-Caldwell/dp/0840029438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403603188&sr=8-1&keywords=statistics+unplugged

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