Applied Statistics for Engineers and Physical Scientists (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A good introductory statistic book
Review: I have studied one full year of probability theory on the level of Probability and Random Processes for Electrical Engineering by Leon-Garcia, but I have decided to read this book to enhance my statistical concepts. This book is easy to read; it gives an intuitive explanation on statisical concepts and then explain them in math (it does assume some knowledge in Calculus). It also has an emphasis on quality control/production that I found valueable. The sections I found useful are control charts, reliability, design of experiments, checking for normaility, confidence interval, etc. The drawbacks are that the important equations are not labeled with numbers so they don't stand out and that this is a 1992 book so it does not include more recent examples.

Rating:
Summary: Not clear at all
Review: This book was used as a text for an intro statistics class, and proved to be completely useless. First of all it fails to explain any of the information in terms understandable by the reader, and thus is useless to anyone who doesn't already know the material. Second, the examples it does provide (few as they are) show the simplest cases possible, that do not apply the information covered in that section. The examples, if a solution is provided (oftentimes they say in one sentence that the solution should be obvious to anyone, and don't provide a solution) skip steps and are generally confusing. In summary, this book should only be used if you already understand everything in it and I would thereby rate it as a pass, unless of course you are looking for a handbook or reference.