A First Course in Statistics

Abstract

THE needs of the student of social statistics form the prime consideration in this “First Course,” but, as the author states, illustrations have been drawn from all sources, and it will serve very well as a brief introduction for students in other branches of science. The volume has been divided into two parts. Part I. is elementary in character, and in the main can be followed by a reader with little mathematical knowledge. The notions of measurement and of variables are explained, and the conceptions of the frequency distribution, of classification and tabulation are briefly discussed, and a couple of chapters follow on the simpler forms of average and the weighted mean. Dispersion comes next, accompanied by a more detailed discussion of the frequency distribution. The following chapter is on graphs, an unusual feature in this chapter being the inclusion of sections on interpolation arid on supply and demand curves. A treatment of the correlation of two variables on simple lines concludes the first part of the book. Part II., though it begins simply, is of a more advanced mathematical character. The first few chapters are on probability, sampling, and probable errors. Prof. Pearson's generalised probability curves are then dealt with, and the method of moments; two chapters on the normal curve and the normal correlation surface conclude the volume. An appendix of some sixteen pages deals with a number of incidental points, and short notes are given on certain current sources of social statistics and on tables as aids to calculation.

A First Course in Statistics.

By Sir D. C. Jones. (Bell's Mathematical Series.) Pp. ix + 286. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1921.) 15s. net.