Material for studying probability and statistics

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around finding suitable study materials for probability and statistics, particularly for self-study. Participants share their experiences with specific textbooks and seek recommendations for alternative resources that cover essential topics outlined in a course curriculum.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration with "Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists" by Sheldon M. Ross, citing its brevity and errors in examples as significant obstacles to effective study.
  • Another participant suggests a website with applets as a supplementary resource, although a later reply disputes the usefulness of the site, indicating it lacks the necessary applets and emphasizing the need for more detailed explanations in textbooks.
  • A participant mentions finding "Introduction to Probability, 2nd Edition" by Dimitri P. Bertsekas and John N. Tsitsiklis, noting it has good reviews and covers most of the required topics, albeit in a longer format.
  • Participants discuss the specific chapters and topics needed for their course, including elements of probability, random variables, and special random variables.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best study materials. There are differing opinions on the effectiveness of the suggested resources, and some participants express dissatisfaction with the initial textbook while others propose alternatives.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention that certain recommended books may be missing specific concepts, indicating that while they cover most topics, they may not be comprehensive. The discussion reflects varying levels of satisfaction with the resources available.

stucano
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Hi guys,

I'm having trouble with this book - "Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists" by Sheldon M. Ross. The explanations are very short and often lack necessary details, the examples are very hard and apparently some full of errors. I just can't study from it and it's becoming incredibly frustrating.

I'm mostly doing self-study with video lectures when needed but I need a good book for this. My course's curriculum for the probability part is Chapters 3, 4 and 5. Here are the details:

Chapter 3 - Elements of probability
* Conditional probability
* Bayes' Formula
* Independent events

Chapter 4 - Random variables and Expectation
* Random variables, types
* Jointly distributed random vars
* Expectations
* Properties of expected value
* Variance, covariance and variance of sums of rand vars
* Moment generating func
* Chebyshev's inequality and the weak law of large numbers

Chapter 5 - Special random variables
* Bernoulli random variables
* Poisson random variable
* Hypergeometric random variable
* Uniform random variable
* Normal random variable
* Exponential random variable
* Gamma distribution
* Distributions arising from the normal
- Chi-Square, t-Distribution, F-distribution
* Logistics distribution

We cover probability first then statistics. Can anyone please recommend a good substitute that has all the above material? Anything would be useful, course notes, book(s), other materials even if they are just parts of the above chapters.
 
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micromass said:
Here's a very good site with very nice applets: http://www.uah.edu/science/departments/math/ Spending some time studying the applets could mean a world of difference for your understanding.

There are no applets as far as that site goes. It's not so much about visualizing, it's more about the textbook I quoted having very brief explanations and it's not enough. From the reviews online it seems that other students agree.

I found this book: Introduction to Probability, 2nd Edition by Dimitri P. Bertsekas and John N. Tsitsiklis, which seems to be good with good reviews. Book contents are here http://www.athenasc.com/probcontents.html.

It seems to be missing some concepts but all in all it covers most of the topics I listed, but it does so in ~500 pages. Should be interesting.
 

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