Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Jeffrey Bennett (Author), William L. Briggs (Author), Mario F. Triola (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0201771284 | ISBN-13: 978-0201771282 | Edition: 2

The goals of the book are to help students develop an understanding of statistics and develop their statistical reasoning skills. This text approaches statistics by presenting an overall picture, then providing an explanation of the topics in context. Students develop an understanding of statistics that is reinforced in the exercises, Web projects, and Focus On features.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Bennett¿s academic home is the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he has been teaching on and off since 1983 and from which he received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1987. During this time, he¿s taught more than 50 college courses in subjects including mathematics, astronomy, physics, environmental science, and science education. He began work on Using and Understanding Mathematics because he is particularly interested in helping students overcome difficulties with mathematics. For similar reasons, he has recently completed a textbook for introductory astronomy (The Cosmic Perspective, with M. Donahue, N. Schneider, and G.M. Voit, Addison Wesley Longman, 1999). He is also working on several books about mathematics and science for the general public. In addition, he is now working on science books for children. Jeff is perhaps best known for his role in creating the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, DC (opening October 2001); he proposed the project and worked on the team that developed it as a collaborative effort between the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA. When not working, he enjoys participating in masters swimming and hiking the trails of Boulder, Colorado, with his family.

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William L. Briggs has been on the mathematics faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver for 17 years. He teaches throughout the undergraduate and graduate curriculum with a special interest in teaching mathematical modeling as it applies to problems in biology and medicine. He developed the quantitative reasoning course for liberal arts students at CU-Denver supported by the textbook Using and Understanding Mathematics, which he co-authored with Jeff Bennett. He has written two other tutorial monographs, The Multigrid Tutorial and The DFT: An Owner's Manual for the Discrete Fourier Transform. He is a University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar, an Outstanding Teacher awardee of the Rocky Mountain Section of the MAA, and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Ireland. Bill lives with his wife, Julie, his daughter, Katie, and two dogs, Midnight and Seamus, in Boulder, Colorado. He loves to bake bread, as well as run trails and rock climb in the mountains near his home.

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Mario F. Triola is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Dutchess Community College, where he has taught statistics for over 30 years. Marty is the author of Essentials of Statistics, Elementary Statistics Using Excel, Mathematics in the Modern World, and Survey of Mathematics. He is a co(author of Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life, Business Statistics, and Introduction to Technical Mathematics. He designed the original STATDISK statistical software package, and he has written several manuals and workbooks for technology supporting statistics education. Outside of the classroom, Marty's consulting work includes the mathematical design of casino slot machines and fishing rods, and he has worked with attorneys in determining probabilities in paternity lawsuits, identifying salary inequities based on gender, and analyzing disputed election results. Marty has testified as an expert witness in New York State Supreme Court for an election dispute involving a former student. Marty was a recent writing team member of the Project Coalition with NASA and the American Mathematics Association of Two(Year Colleges.When he's not working, Marty enjoys travel, golf, tennis, running, hiking, and anything that flies. He has a commercial pilot's license with an instrument rating, and has flown airplanes, helicopters, sail planes, hang gliders, and hot air balloons. His passion for flying has included parachute jumps, flying in a Goodyear blimp, and parasailing.The Text and Academic Authors Association has awarded Mario F. Triola a "Texty" for Excellence for his work on Elementary Statistics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 2 edition (July 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201771284
• ISBN-13: 978-0201771282
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffrey Bennett holds a B.A. in Biophysics from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. His extensive experience in research and education includes serving two years as a Visiting Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC; creating research and education projects for the Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA missions; proposing and helping to develop the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, DC; and teaching at every level from preschool through graduate school. He is the author of best-selling college textbooks in astronomy, astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics, as well as author of two books for the general public (On the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond UFOs) and of the award-winning children's books Max Goes to the Moon, Max Goes to Mars, and Max Goes to Jupiter. For more information, visit www.jeffreybennett.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delivers On Its Promises, February 21, 2003

By 

mathtrix "mathtrix" (Jacksonville, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This textbook is well-conceived and well-executed. The authors have a strong background in science as well as a keen interest in making technical subjects accessible to a broad audience. They have succeeded in presenting statistics with a minimum of mathematics. Emphasis is placed upon the application of these concepts to real life situations taken from news sources, the internet and individual experiences. The graphics, sidebars, focus sections and case studies are timely, relevant, engaging, lucidly written and enlightening. A one-page epilog provides a nice summary statement to the entire textbook. A glossary, index, answer key , appendices and suggestions for further reading are also included.
This is an excellent textbook for a general education student whose career would not require the direct use of statistical tools. None of the usual tables are discussed or present in this textbook, but all of the main topics are treated in a thorough and thought-provoking fashion. The authors' discussion of correlation and causality is especially good, although their definition of causality in the glossary as " the relationship present when one variable is a cause of another " is circular. Instead, the authors should reiterate their assertion from the main text that a "cause" is a "physical mechanism" based upon a "physical model" which is generally acceptable as a scientific explanation.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Written well, easy to understand, but lacking depth at times, September 15, 2007

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Christine Robbins "binkadinka" (Somewhere in Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I purchased this book for a distance learning course at Univ. of Phoenix, and found that while it gave lots of good information and was written in an easy to understand style, it lacked detailed explanation at time. Overall, though, if you have to study statistics, this is a perfectly decent textbook.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand, August 30, 2005

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Julie Hathaway (Mary Esther, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This textbook was a breath of fresh air when compared with other statistics textbooks required for university level classes. I found this text to be very easy to understand, and the examples used were very helpful.