Statistics with Mathematica

Rating:
Summary: This is a good book.
Review: If you¡¯ve studied statistics before, then this is a good reference book to do statistical analysis with mathematica. This book has many examples and considerably decent explanations. I found some errors in data in the accompanying CD. One (census.txt) of them is very bad; others are annoying but can be overcome easily. Also this book has several typos, which are annoying. However, this book helps readers harness the power of mathematica for statistics.

Rating:
Summary: This is a good book.
Review: If you¡¯ve studied statistics before, then this is a good reference book to do statistical analysis with mathematica. This book has many examples and considerably decent explanations. I found some errors in data in the accompanying CD. One (census.txt) of them is very bad; others are annoying but can be overcome easily. Also this book has several typos, which are annoying. However, this book helps readers harness the power of mathematica for statistics.

Rating:
Summary: Statistics with Mathematica
Review: Statistics with Mathematica (which I'll refer to as "SwM") is a book for someone who knows something about Mathematica and something about statistics--the more known, the better. SwM is neither a comprehensive tutorial on Mathematica nor on statistics. Rather, SwM illustrates by example how to perform statistical operations and produce graphs using Mathematica. SwM is both a tutorial and a reference book. SwM was written for Version 3 (or later) of Mathematica, although one can purportedly squeak by with Version 2.2.

A word of advice: Before you buy this book, decide whether you have some compelling reason to perform statistical analyses and make graphs using Mathematica, as opposed to, say, Excel.

I found the large number of typos, oversights, and the poor integration of the accompanying CD quite annoying. To the reader familiar with Mathematica, many of the typos are glaring and easy to correct. Other typos, such as incorrect page numbers listed in the index, are more problematic.

Knowledge of Mathematica will also see you through most of the oversights. For example, if you already understand why you must first load a Mathematica Standard Add-on Package before attempting to use one of its functions, you will not need such a reminder in SwM. A reminder is given, but many pages too late.

SwM's preface promises that all Mathematica input is included on the accompanying CD. That is simply not so--some files referred to in the text are not on the CD. However, if you don't mind typing a few missing files, you can make them yourself. The CD, oddly titled "UNTITLED_CD", contains two folders and a total of 60 files. Most files are cryptically named and are not referenced in the text nor vice versa. That's where the fun begins. The SwM text will refer you to an author-defined procedure, tell you to locate it on the CD, but fail to mention the name of the requisite CD file.

A redeeming feature of SwM is the collection of ready-to-use author-defined procedures available to the reader. Some are simple and obvious, while others, such the "Box and Whisker" plotters, would require some effort to write from scratch. The authors' procedures help both by extending the use of Mathematica's add-ons and by illustrating how one might write or modify such procedures.

SwM includes a chapter on data manipulation that illustrates how to transfer data from a text file to Mathematica list variables where the data can be worked upon. SwM, however, does not address how to transfer data from Excel or other commonly used data base applications.

SwM covers a wide gamut of statistical tools including descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate methods, data smoothing and time series, probability and probability distributions, simulation, inferential procedures, analysis of variance, and regression and correlation, as well as the graphic representation of data and its attributes.

As far as I know, SwM is the only book of its kind that is devoted to statistical analysis via Mathematica. While sloppy editing does leave SwM frustrating to use, the reader could reorganize and index the CD's Notebook files and eventually find SwM to be a favorite reference.

Rating:
Summary: Statistics with Mathematica
Review: Statistics with Mathematica (which I'll refer to as "SwM") is a book for someone who knows something about Mathematica and something about statistics--the more known, the better. SwM is neither a comprehensive tutorial on Mathematica nor on statistics. Rather, SwM illustrates by example how to perform statistical operations and produce graphs using Mathematica. SwM is both a tutorial and a reference book. SwM was written for Version 3 (or later) of Mathematica, although one can purportedly squeak by with Version 2.2.

A word of advice: Before you buy this book, decide whether you have some compelling reason to perform statistical analyses and make graphs using Mathematica, as opposed to, say, Excel.

I found the large number of typos, oversights, and the poor integration of the accompanying CD quite annoying. To the reader familiar with Mathematica, many of the typos are glaring and easy to correct. Other typos, such as incorrect page numbers listed in the index, are more problematic.

Knowledge of Mathematica will also see you through most of the oversights. For example, if you already understand why you must first load a Mathematica Standard Add-on Package before attempting to use one of its functions, you will not need such a reminder in SwM. A reminder is given, but many pages too late.

SwM's preface promises that all Mathematica input is included on the accompanying CD. That is simply not so--some files referred to in the text are not on the CD. However, if you don't mind typing a few missing files, you can make them yourself. The CD, oddly titled "UNTITLED_CD", contains two folders and a total of 60 files. Most files are cryptically named and are not referenced in the text nor vice versa. That's where the fun begins. The SwM text will refer you to an author-defined procedure, tell you to locate it on the CD, but fail to mention the name of the requisite CD file.

A redeeming feature of SwM is the collection of ready-to-use author-defined procedures available to the reader. Some are simple and obvious, while others, such the "Box and Whisker" plotters, would require some effort to write from scratch. The authors' procedures help both by extending the use of Mathematica's add-ons and by illustrating how one might write or modify such procedures.

SwM includes a chapter on data manipulation that illustrates how to transfer data from a text file to Mathematica list variables where the data can be worked upon. SwM, however, does not address how to transfer data from Excel or other commonly used data base applications.

SwM covers a wide gamut of statistical tools including descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate methods, data smoothing and time series, probability and probability distributions, simulation, inferential procedures, analysis of variance, and regression and correlation, as well as the graphic representation of data and its attributes.

As far as I know, SwM is the only book of its kind that is devoted to statistical analysis via Mathematica. While sloppy editing does leave SwM frustrating to use, the reader could reorganize and index the CD's Notebook files and eventually find SwM to be a favorite reference.