Abstract
THIS is a bright and original treatment of a subject voted by many as dull, however necessary it may be for the experimentalist to discuss with care the accuracy of the end result of his measurements and calculations. The book is addressed primarily to students of physics and chemistry, but others will find it interesting and useful. It begins with questions of pure probability, leading up to the discussion of problems of random migration and kindred topics that are of interest to the modern physicist. Various types of error are listed, and a chapter is devoted to their estimation. We then have an unusually full chapter giving the probable errors of various combinations of measured quantities. The fitting to data of the straight line and parabola is described, together with examples of the fitting of other types of curves, The first part of this section might have been simplified arithmetically, since the data are in all cases equally spaced, by giving a method, such as that of Aitken, based on orthogonal polynomials. A chapter on periodogram analysis follows, and the book ends -wvfcla. a Toxmhex o £ misslenious examples, and with two short appendixes, in one of which the formula of the book are conveniently summarised for reference.
Probability and Random Errors
Dr.
W. N.
Bond
By. Pp. viii + 141. (London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1935.) 10s. 6d. net.
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Probability and Random Errors. Nature 137, 802 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137802d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137802d0