Release 4

February 16th, 2010

We released the following items yesterday:

Chapter 3 problem set. The Chapter 3 problem set is entirely new, produced by Mine. It provides 22 problems for general use. Mine also has minor updates to the Chapter 1 problem set.

Chapter 4: Foundations for inference. Chapter 4 introduces the concepts of inference. The first section discusses the general principles of point estimates and standard error. Section 4.2 introduces the Central Limit Theorem and confidence intervals for a single mean. Section 4.3 provides a foundation for hypothesis testing with a single mean. We review some special components of the Central Limit Theorem in 4.4, especially related to strongly skewed data. In 4.5, we generalize the methods of 4.2 and 4.3 to apply to any point estimate that is unbiased and nearly normal.

Over the next 6 weeks we will be working on several new items:

  • Mine is producing a problem set for Chapter 4.
  • Chris and David are constructing Chapter 5 (large sample inference) and, time-permitting, one section of Chapter 6 (a section on the t-test, where Chapter 6 covers small sample inference).
  • Updates will be made to Chapter 4. We realize there are some major components still to add in Chapter 4 for even a very basic introduction to statistics. One major component remains missing in this first version: the formal term test statistic. It is reasonable to anticipate the draft's test reader, Meenal, will also have many suggested improvements that we will incorporate.
  • Our next release will be March 29th (midnight Eastern time).