Dr Nic’s blog

Let’s start with a question. Please answer it now before you read any further! Statistics, like Operations Research, is a mathematical science. However people can be intelligent consumers of statistical analysis without having to use mathematics. The statement in the box above is false. Often statistics is taught by mathematics teachers, who understand the mathematical aspects of statistics, but may never have dirtied their hands with real data. They teach the mechanics of calculating the values of standard deviations and confidence intervals, intending that this will lead to understanding. Unfortunately many of their pupils do not gain understanding from the application […]