Entry tags:

mathematics, science

The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics
The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics, Second Edition

By B.S. Everitt

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2002.

This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 410 pages plus a brief preface.

The preface to this straightforward book begins,

The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics aims to provide students of statistics, working statisticians and researchers in many disciplines with relatively concise definitions of statistical terms. All areas of statistics are covered, theoretical, applied, medical, etc., although, as in any dictionary, the choice of which terms to include and which to exclude, is likely to reflect some aspects of the compiler's main areas of interest, and I have no illusions that this dictionary is any different. My hope is that the dictionary will provide a useful source of reference for both specialists and non-specialists alike. Many definitions necessarily contain some mathematical formulae and/or nomenclature, others contain none.

There are just over 3000 terms defined in the book and entries on about 100 important statisticians. For a sense of what is included, here are the first fifteen entries in the "G" sequence, synonym references excluded:

• G²
  
• Galbraith plot
  
• Galton, Sir Francis
  
• Galton-Watson process
  
• Gambler's fallacy
  
• Gambler's ruin problem
  
• Game theory
  
• Gamma distribution
  
• Gamma function
  
• Gap statistics
  
• Gap-straggler test
  
• Gap time
  
• Garbage in garbage out
  
• Gardner, Martin
  
• GAUSS
  

The definitions really are as understandable to a layperson as they possibly could be given the subject matter, making the book useful and informative to those who don't have a background in mathematics. This is a nice reference work.