The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to the concepts of statistical analysis of data for students at the undergraduate and graduate level, and to provide tools for data reduction and error analysis commonly required in the physical sciences. The presentation is developed from a practical point of view, including enough derivation to justify the results, but emphasizing methods of handling data more than theory. The text provides a variety of numerical and graphical techniques. Computer programs that support these techniques will be available on an accompanying website in both Fortran and C++.
1 Uncertainties in Measurements
2 Probability Distributions
3 Error Analysis
4 Estimates of Mean and Errors
5 Monte Carlo Techniques
6 Least-Squares Fit to a Straight Line
7 Least-Squares Fit to a Polynomial
8 Least-Squares Fit to an Arbitrary Function
9 Fitting Composite Curves
10 Direct Application of the Maximum-Likelihood Method
11 Testing the Fit
Appendix A Numerical Methods
Appendix B Matrices
Appendix C Graphs and Tables
Appendix D Histograms and Graphs
Appendix E Computer Routines in Fortran