The Cartoon Guide to Statistics [Paperback]

Larry Gonick (Author), Woollcott Smith (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 14, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0062731025 | ISBN-13: 978-0062731029 | Edition: 1

If you have ever looked for P-values by shopping at P mart, tried to watch the Bernoulli Trails on "People's Court," or think that the standard deviation is a criminal offense in six states, then you need The Cartoon Guide to Statistics to put you on the road to statistical literacy.

The Cartoon Guide to Statistics covers all the central ideas of modern statistics: the summary and display of data, probability in gambling and medicine, random variables, Bernoulli Trails, the Central Limit Theorem, hypothesis testing, confidence interval estimation, and much more—all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Never again will you order the Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Gonick is one of a kind." -- --Discover

"Gonick is one of a kind." -- Discover

"Gonick is so consistently witty and clever that the reader is barely aware of being given a thorough grounding." -- --Omni

"Gonick is so consistently witty and clever that the reader is barely aware of being given a thorough grounding." -- Omni

From the Back Cover

If you have ever looked for P-values by shopping at P mart, tried to watch the Bernoulli Trials on People's Court, or think that the standard deviation is a criminal offense in six states, then you need The Cartoon Guide to Statistics to put you on the road to statistical literacy.

The Cartoon Guide to Statistics covers all the central ideas of modern statistics: the summary and display of all data, probability in gambling and medicine, random variables, Bernoulli Trials, the Central Limit Theorem, hypothesis testing, confidence interval estimation, and much more--all explained in simple, clear, and funny illustrations. Never again will you order the Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: HarperPerennial; 1 edition (July 14, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062731025
• ISBN-13: 978-0062731029
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Research
  • #44 in Books > Education & Reference > Studying & Workbooks > Study Guides

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

331 of 335 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Practical... but don't be fooled! August 3, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is exceptional in its ability to communicate difficult concepts in a light and entertaining manner. It seems to me that those who gave this book low ratings seem to think that the book should have magically imparted its knowledge upon them with no effort on their part.

Indeed, although Gonick presents the details via cartoons, that does not change the fact that "Sigma" is still "Sigma", and if you don't understand exactly what "Sigma" represents before moving on to the next concept, then you will not understand the subsequent lessons.

ie. Just because cartoons tell the tale, it doesn't mean that you will breeze through this book as you might a comic book. The individual concepts must be read and reread and perhaps even contemplated in order to truly understand each one before moving on to the next concept. If you do not do this, then, of course, nothing will make sense.

This is a book of statistics, not miracles...thus work will still be necessary in order to absorb the basic concepts within it.

Nevertheless, this book is far clearer and much more fun to read than any other stat book I've opened before. Very highly recommended.

118 of 119 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK (covers probability theory painlessly & well) April 27, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Probability theory (uncertainty, error estimates, confidence intervals, "p-values" and the like) take time to understand, and rigorous approaches fail to get the concepts across to the non-mathemetician.

Gonick & Woolcott's Cartoon Guide to Statistics gets the ideas across with a minimum of math, and a maximum of "common sense" & (dare I say it?) intuition. The reader get's a FEEL for Probability and Statistics without violating the rigorous underpinnings of statistical theory.

I've taught Statistics to undergrad and grad students, and have had to teach into stats to Grad Students in 7 week Summer short courses, and I required everybody to buy exactly the same statistics calculator (one of the TI models with a couple chapters devoted to the mechanics of "doing statistics"), Cliff Notes _Statistics_, Darryl Huff's _How_to_Lie_With_Statistics_ (a classic cartoon guide I read decades ago) and Gonick's _Cartoon_Guide_to_Statistics_.

The 4 paperbacks (including the book that comes with the TI calculator) complement each other very well.

If you want to learn Statistics, without the standard Sadistics, I recommend Cliff, Huff, T.I. & Gonick. Enjoy!

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent suppliment to dry statistics books February 14, 2002

By Eric C

Format:Paperback

This book was included in the materials for a business statistics class at Anderson. Bogged down by the reading from the course book and study guide, I didn't even open the cartoon guide for weeks, thinking it was probably too dumbed down to be helpful. Was I ever wrong. Concepts that were very difficult to understand in the course book were elucidated by the excellent examples and explanations in this guide. Made reviewing general concepts for the final exam much easier as well.

This book won't help you much in the practical application of statistics (for that you need problem sets), but will certainly aid in understanding the general ideas behind the math.