Resource Library

Do not make things easy for yourself by speaking or thinking of data as if they were different from what they are; and do not go off from facing data as they are, to amuse your imagination by wishing they were different from what they are. Such wishing is pure waste of nerve force, weakens your intellectual power, and gets you into habits of mental confusion. is a quote by English mathematician and mathematics educator Mary Everest Boole (1832-1916). The quote is found on page 7 of her 1909 book "Philosophy and Fun of Algebra", (C.W. Daniel, Ltd.) written to bring then modern mathematical ideas to children. The book is available online through Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org/files/13447/13447-pdf.pdf

Most real life statistical problems have one or more nonstandard features. There are no routine statistical question; only questionable statistical routines. is a quote by British Statistician Sir David R. Cox (1924 - ). The quote may be found on page 240 in Christopher Chatfield's 1991 article "Avoiding Statistical Pitfalls" in "Statistical Science".

Averages don't always reveal the most telling realities. You know, Shaquille O'Neal and I have an average height of 6 feet. is a quote from American political economist and former Secretary of Labor, Robert B. Reich (1946 - ). The quote was first published on October 6, 1994 in the Business section of "The Chicago Tribune". Robert Reich is 4 foot 10 inches tall. (Picture of Robert Reich is by Michael Collopy)

Data is the sword of the 21st century, those who wield it well, the Samurai. is a quote from American businessman Jonathan Rosenberg, the Senior Vice President of Product Management at Google Inc. The quote appeared in "The Official Google Blog" on February 16, 2009

Conducting data analysis is like drinking a fine wine. It is important to swirl and sniff the wine, to unpack the complex bouquet and to appreciate the experience. Gulping the wine doesn't work. is a quote by British quantitative cognitive psychologist Daniel B. Wright. The quote is found in his 2003 article "Making friends with your data: Improving how statistics are conducted and reported" in the "British Journal of Educational Psychology", volume 73 page 123-136.

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security. is a quote by American mathematician and Temple University professor John Allen Paulos (1945 - ). The quote is found in his 2003 book "A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market" where he is referencing something told to him by his father.

A sketch by Anastasia Mandel reinterpreting Government Bureau by George Tooker (1956) with the statistical caption "Queuing theory and implementation." This is part of a collection of sketches by Anastasia Mandel and their accompanying statistical captions discussed in the paper "How art helps to understand statistics" (Model Assisted Statistics and Applications, 2009) by Stan Lipovetsky and Igor Mandel in volume 4 pages 313-324. Free to use in classrooms and on course websites.

A cartoon that might be used when presenting a coin flip as a canonic example of a simple experiment in introducing probability concepts. The cartoon is #16 in the "Life in Research" series at www.vadio.com. Free to use with attribution in the classroom or on course websites.

A cartoon that can be used in teaching about random walks. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

This page discusses the differences in parametric and nonparametric tests and when to use then.