Contents Previous

REFERENCES

  1. Frank Solmitz, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Sci. 14, 375 (1964)
  2. In 1958 it was common to use probable error rather than standard deviation. Also some physicists would deliberately multiply their estimated standard deviations by a "safety" factor (such as pi). Such practices are confusing to other physicists who in the course of their work must combine, compare, interpret, or manipulate experimental results. By 1980 most of these misleading practices had been discontinued.
  3. An equivalent statement is that in the inverse probability approach (also called Baysean approach) one is implicitly assuming that the prior probabilities are equal.
  4. H. Cramer, Mathematical Methods of Statistics, Princeton University Press, 1946.
  5. M. Annis, W. Cheston, and H. Primakoff, Rev. Mod. Phys. 25, 818 (1953).
  6. A. G. Frodesen, O. Skjeggestad, and H. Tofte, Probability and Statistics in Particle Physics. (Columbia University Press, 1979) ISBN 82-00-01906-3. The title is misleading, this is an excellent book for physicists in all fields who wish to pursue the subject more deeply than is done in these notes.
  7. J. Orear, "Least Squares When Both Variables have Uncertainties", Amer. Jour. Phys., Oct. 1982.
  8. Some statistics books written specifically for physicists are: H. D. Young, "Statistical Treatment of Experimental Data," (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1962). P. R. Bevington, "Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences," (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York 1969). W. T. Eadie, D. Drijard, F. E. James, M. Roos, and B. Sadoulet, "Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics," (North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam-London, 1971). S. Brandt, "Statistical and Computational Methods in Data Analysis," second edition (Elsevier North-Holland Inc., New York, 1976.) S. L. Meyer, "Data Analysis for Scientists and Engineers" (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1975).
  9. Reprinted from Rev. Mod. Phys. 52, No. 2, Part 11, April 1980 (page 536).

Contents Previous