Introduction: Probability and Statistics

This chapter gives a broad introduction to probability and statistics and defines the important terms, such as probability, statistics, chance and randomness. It also provides an overview of the information provided in the chapters of the book. This book starts with the basics of probability and then covers descriptive statistics. Then various probability distributions are investigated. The second half of the book is mostly concerned with statistical inference, including relations between two or more variables and there are introductory chapters on the design and analysis of experiments. The book also includes a number of computer examples and computer exercises, which can be done using Microsoft Excel. Solved problem examples and problems for the reader to solve are included throughout the book. A great majority of the problems are directly applied to engineering, involving many different branches of engineering. They show how statistics and probability can be applied by professional engineers.