Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34030 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 215 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781593271893
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–Rui is introduced to &statistics with heart-pounding excitement& when she develops a crush on Igarashi, her father&'s market-research business associate. In an attempt to impress him, the teen asks her father for a personal tutor and is devastated when he enlists Yamamoto, a bespectacled geek, as her instructor. As Rui gamely struggles through some basic lessons, readers learn about distribution tables and deviation scores. Naturally, love finally blossoms. In a moment of frustration, Rui knocks off Yamamoto&'s glasses and sees his eyes for the first time, and hers fill with hearts. This manga textbook is written for those interested in understanding principles of statistics. Each of the seven chapters is organized into four sections: a cartoon, a text explanation to supplement the cartoon, an exercise that includes the answer, and a summary. Readers can learn much about the subject by just reading the cartoon, but they will gain a more thorough understanding by working through the other three sections in each chapter. Yamamoto provides Rui with easy-to-understand examples and graphic illustrations, making the subject less intimidating. The book progresses in difficulty, beginning with data types and advancing to &tests of independence.& Clearly, readers need a solid understanding of mathematics to grasp these concepts. The art is charming and the humor engaging. Readers will enjoy following Rui as she struggles with math concepts while showing off her new school uniform and realizing her romantic feelings for her tutor. A fun and fairly painless lesson on what many consider to be a less-than-thrilling subject.–Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Customer Reviews

another cartoon book guiding students in elementary statistics
I loved "The Cartoon Guide to Statistics" because it was humorous very simply told and yet accurately taught. Some of the material is so good that I now use it in my introductory biostatistics course.

The Manga Guide to Statistics does similar things but a little differently. This book is in cartoon strip form and the characters are familiar to many kids who these days wacth the Japanese cartoons on television and read the comic books. This includes my son Daniel who is a high school junior. Dan hates to read but loves math and science and this is the first statistics book that intrigued him enough to read it! I know is reading it and enjoying learning from it by the questions he asks. So like the other cartoon book on statistics this too is a gentle introduction for those with math skills and those with an aversion to mathematics. It shows how statistics is practical by illustrating the techniques on everyday real world data, such as the scores of bowling team players at a bowling alley. It covers the basic summary statistics, correlation, hypothesis testing and probability distributions. What I found interesting was that in addition to the ordinary Pearson product moment correlation they also provided intra-class correlation and Cramer's V (for categorical data). These methods are rarely covered in elementary texts.

One thing it has that is missing in "The Cartoon Guide to Statistics" is the teaching of how to use the computer to apply what they learn. In the final chapter they do this using Excel and teaching things step by step using screen shots of excel spreadsheets.

Throughout the book when a new statistic is introduced they go through the step by step details of the calculations. This is something that student do not necessarily need to learn in the age of computers and statistical computer packages. However, going through the tedium of the calculations has a way of reinforcing the concepts and it gives the student a better understanding of exactly what a variance and a standard deviation are.

I recommend this book for high school students to supplement what they learn in class or for independent self-learning. College student with weak math backgrounds who need an introduction to statistics may also find this book useful and interesting. It is working wonders for Dan who now wants to get the soon to be published Manga guides to physics, calculus, microbiology and databases! Unfortunately this one is the first to come out and the others won't appear until later in 2009.

Can You Learn Statistics from Cartoons?
Can You Learn Statistics from Cartoons?

The short answer is yes. The is a deceptively simple introduction to statistics that is taught via manga, or Japanese cartoons. If you ride the subway in Tokyo, you'll see many riders reading manga for diversion on their way to and from work. They are serial stories presented in black and white cartoons.

The Manga Guide to Statistics uses a cartoon format to present elementary statistics. You might think that an apparently non-serious approach wouldn't work in introducing a complicated subject such as statistics, but think again. The basics are all here. Chapters are included on the subjects listed below

Categorical & Numerical Data defined

Numerical Data
Various descriptions, mean, median, standard deviation, estimation theory

Categorical Data
Cross tabulations

Standard Score, Deviation Score

Probability
Probability density function
Standard normal distribution
Chi square distribution
t distribution
F distribution
Use of computer spread sheets to do the math

Testing Variables
Correlation coefficient
Correlation ratio
Cramer's coefficient

Hypothesis Testing
Chi-Square test of independence
Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis
P-value and procedure for hypothesis tests
Tests of independence and tests of homogeneity
Again, use of computers to simplify the calculations

This is a good book for a general introduction to the theory and methodology of statistics. It is short on examples and problems to work on, but for certain readers, it may have value in helping them understand the available statistical tools. It is also short as well on explaining the strengths and weaknesses of statistics, For example, I don't believe you could use just the material in the book to critique the use of statistics in a medical article.

While it has the math, and a short description of the theory, it falls short in teaching the philosophy behind our understanding of statistics. If you don't believe that is important, take a look at the current financial landscape in the world. Many people blame the "greed" of Wall Street for our financial troubles, but a more basic cause is a misuse and lack of understanding about what one can actually learn from statistics. In short, in the real world, there is no such thing as a "normal" population, and the expression P=0 never happens. An admittedly longer and more complex book that should be on the short reading list of all who are interested in "understanding" statistics is The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives by by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey and Steve Ziliak

But for an introduction, it may be very helpful to certain readers, particularly to those who may be visual learners.

Recommended with reservations.

Best statistics book ever. Buy now.
I don't know where to start. This is the best statistics book. Ever.

I never thought I'd say this, but the authors have made a book on statistics FUN without dumbing it down (this effectively covers at least the entirety of a college level stat intro class).

As a student, this cleared up many problems I'd been having operationalizing fairly advanced formula within Excel. The chapter on inputting statistical formulae in Excel is amazing and worth the cost of the book in itself. The explanations of the formulas use concrete, real world examples. No gambling examples or other unnecesarily abstract or standard scenarios.

As a teacher, I bow down to Mr. Takahashi and the folks at Trend-pro. Their pedagogical expertise is unparalleled. I can only hope that one day I am 1/10th the teacher this man is. He made statistics, a fairly dry subject, not just palatable, but entertaining.

Arigato.