This remarkable text by John R. Taylor has been a non-stop best-selling
international hit since it was first published forty years ago. However,
the two-plus decades since the second edition was released have seen two
dramatic developments; the huge rise in popularity of Bayesian
statistics, and the continued increase in the power and availability of
computers and calculators. In response to the former, Taylor has added a
full chapter dedicated to Bayesian thinking, introducing conditional
probabilities and Bayes' theorem. The several examples presented in the
new third edition are intentionally very simple, designed to give
readers a clear understanding of what Bayesian statistics is all about
as their first step on a journey to become practicing Bayesians. In
response to the second development, Taylor has added a number of
chapter-ending problems that will encourage readers to learn how to
solve problems using computers. While many of these can be solved using
programs such as Matlab or Mathematica, almost all of them are stated to
apply to commonly available spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel.
These programs provide a convenient way to record and process data and
to calculate quantities like standard deviations, correlation
coefficients, and normal distributions; they also have the wonderful
ability - if students construct their own spreadsheets and avoid the
temptation to use built-in functions - to teach the meaning of these
concepts.
