Math 18 Instructor: A.M. Garsia Spring 2000 Lecture MWF 1:25-2:15pm Discussion Tu 1:25-2:15pm LOCATION: CENTR 203 SECTION ID: 373287

Increase your employability

Learn how to use and/or misuse statistics to your advantage.

Standard topics of statistics and probability are presented in a novel and visual way using computer animated images.

In this course, on hand experimentation with graphical software replaces complex mathematical language as means of communicating the subject matter.

There is no computer literacy requirement. Our first week of instruction will be at a computer lab where you will learn how to use the software needed for this course.

We start learning, by computer simulation, standard topics of probability theory which lie at the foundations of statistics, such as

dependence, independence, conditional probabilities, expectation and variance normal, exponential, Poisson distributions law of large numbers and the central limit theorem

We shall then learn the basics of statistics by carrying out on computer simulated models:

hypothesis testing maximum likelyhood estimation sampling chi-square tests... construction of confidence intervals

The media serves us daily a rich diet of elaborate statisticulations (misinformation by the use of statistical manipulation). By the end of the course you should be able, not only to carry out some basic statistical analysis, but also to assess when statistics are being misused.