Читать книгу Statistics and Probability with Applications for Engineers and Scientists Using MINITAB, R and JMP - Bhisham C. Gupta, Irwin Guttman - Страница 14

Statistics, the discipline, is the study of the scientific method. In pursuing this discipline, statisticians have developed a set of techniques that are extensively used to solve problems in any field of scientific endeavor, such as in the engineering sciences, biological sciences, and the chemical, pharmaceutical, and social sciences.

This book is concerned with discussing these techniques and their applications for certain experimental situations. It begins at a level suitable for those with no previous exposure to probability and statistics and carries the reader through to a level of proficiency in various techniques of statistics.

In all scientific areas, whether engineering, biological sciences, medicine, chemical, pharmaceutical, or social sciences, scientists are inevitably confronted with problems that need to be investigated. Consider some examples:

 An engineer wants to determine the role of an electronic component needed to detect the malfunction of the engine of a plane.

 A biologist wants to study various aspects of wildlife, the origin of a disease, or the genetic aspects of a wild animal.

 A medical researcher is interested in determining the cause of a certain type of cancer.

 A manufacturer of lenses wants to study the quality of the finishing on intraocular lenses.

 A chemist is interested in determining the effect of a catalyst in the production of low‐density polyethylene.

 A pharmaceutical company is interested in developing a vaccination for swine flu.

 A social scientist is interested in exploring a particular aspect of human society.

In all of the examples, the first and foremost work is to define clearly the objective of the study and precisely formulate the problem. The next important step is to gather information to help determine what key factors are affecting the problem. Remember that to determine these factors successfully, you should understand not merely statistical methodology but relevant nonstatistical knowledge as well. Once the problem is formulated and the key factors of the problem are identified, the next step is to collect the data. There are various methods of data collecting. Four basic methods of statistical data collecting are as follows:

 A designed experiment

 A survey

 An observational study

 A set of historical data, that is, data collected by an organization or an individual in an earlier study