Resource Library

Chance News reviews current issues in the news that use probability or statistical concepts. Its aim is to give the general public a better understanding of chance news as reported by the media and to allow teachers of probability and statistics courses to liven up their courses with current chance news.

This page was written as instructions for a SAS lab assignment, but the example can be used with other programs. The study compares three treatments for rape victims against each other and a control group to see which treatment is most effective at reducing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.

This example is designed to test whether religiosity is correlated with optimism. The page describes the study, has a link to the data set, and describes the method of analysis. Analysis includes ANOVA and regression.

This site offers a list of sample questions that can be used when teaching basic probability concepts, probability distributions, data collection methods, inferential statistics, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, regression analysis, or problem sensing related to descriptive statistics. Links to the answers are also provided. Application is not limited to business.

The datasets on this page are classified by analysis technique (ANOVA, Linear Regression, Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Nonlinear Regression, and Univariate Summary Statistics) and by level of difficulty (lower, average, higher). They were originally intended to test statistical software.

These are MIT's epidemiology database pages. Mortality data for the United States from 1890-1997, Japan from 1951-1994, and Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Texas and Florida dating back to the late 1950's are provided.

This course features a full set of lecture notes and problem sets introducing students to the modeling, quantification, and analysis of uncertainty. Topics covered include: formulation and solution in sample space, random variables, transform techniques, simple random processes and their probability distributions, Markov processes, limit theorems, and elements of statistical inference.

This course in Statistical Mechanics features problem sets and exams. Basic principles examined include: the laws of thermodynamics and the concepts of temperature, work, heat, and entropy; postulates of classical statistical mechanics, microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical distributions; applications to lattice vibrations, ideal gas, photon gas; quantum statistical mechanics; Fermi and Bose systems; and interacting systems: cluster expansions, van der Waal's gas, and mean-field theory.

This course is second in the series of undergraduate Statistical Physics courses and features comprehensive lecture notes and assignments. Course topics include probability distributions for classical and quantum systems; microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical partition-functions and associated thermodynamic potentials; conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium for homogeneous and heterogeneous systems; non-interacting Bose and Fermi gases; mean field theories for real gases, binary mixtures, magnetic systems, polymer solutions; phase and reaction equilibria, critical phenomena; fluctuations, correlation functions and susceptibilities, and Kubo formulae; evolution of distribution functions: Boltzmann and Smoluchowski equations.

This article contains practical information on teaching statistics to a political science class.