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|  | Author: Larry Gonick
Publisher: San Val
Buy New: $30.55
as of 3/22/2010 00:26 CDT details
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 4278286
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: School & Library Binding
Pages: 230
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0613919033
Dewey Decimal Number: 519.5
EAN: 9780613919036
ASIN: 0613919033
Publication Date: July 1993
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 6 to 11 days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 59
 Witty but too brief July 18, 2005
Tim Witort (Delhi, CA USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
The idea of teaching something like statistics by using cartoons is very attractive, however it falls far short of what the typical reader is expecting. The cartoons in "The Cartoon Guide to Statistics" are very well drawn and are humorous and witty. But, since so much page space must be given to the cartoons, there is insufficient text to explain the concepts. Very frequently, you will read "It's not hard to see that..." right before a formula with no other help as to how we arrived at this. For those hoping for a good review of statistics and probability to brush up or learn for the first time, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics" is far superior. It fully explains all of the concepts and how various formulas are derived with easy to follow examples. The content is almost identical and you will end up with a much better grasp of the subject.
Good Primer January 28, 2005
political idiot (california)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
As many other have noted, this is a good primer on a wide variety of statistical tools presented in a unique format. It should help any student of statistics, mathematically challenged working professionals, or non-fiction skeptics get a good overview and understanding of some difficult statistical concepts. Example data sets are small so as not to confuse with overwhelming amounts of data. A one star hit from me for a couple of reasons. 1. I did have a little trouble with meaning on occasion as grammatical errors do force one to pause here and there to try and figure out what the author is trying to say. A missing comma makes a huge difference in meaning. 2. The book is in desperate need of an update (copyright is 1993). Most examples are calculated in long form. Fine for understanding the mechanics and the author does make one or two references to Minitab; however, the book needs a bit of a makeover with more frequent reference to very commonly available statistical software packages. Minitab is powerful but expensive. Most people have Excel which can be easily utilized for most basic to intermediate statistical needs.
That said, the author does keep it interesting with factoids peppered throughout. The main concepts are highlighted well with good examples. The end of the book provides short descriptions of lesser used but still very important concepts. Chapter ten on "Experimental Design" is really more of a tease then anything else. Fair enough because "Design of Experiments" (DOE) would have been tough to fully explore in this format anyway. Overall this book is well done and provides clear explanation of what many might consider difficult to understand concepts found in a traditional statistics textbook.
 Great. January 15, 2005
C. Wetzelberger (USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I took statistics in college. As soon as I was finished with the course I forgot everything about it as quickly as I could, figuring that I would never need that knowledge again. Well I was wrong.
This book is great.
First its the opposite of wordy. Most math books are far too wordy.
Second the concepts are presented in a clear manner with simple examples.
Third the cartoons are funny but don't detract from the learning.
I wish I had this book the first time I took statistics in college. Very nice as a refresher or to help students learn statistics the first time.
Bottom line if more math books looked like this people probably would not be so afraid of math. Many math textbooks are wordy and do not explain things well, and often go off on a rant on particular concept that the student misses the big picture of what they are tying to study. Well worth the money.
 A Good Introduction May 2, 2004
Dave_42 (Australia)
41 out of 46 found this review helpful
This book is a good introductory level look at Statistics. The authors cover what the subject of Statistics is, the history of Statistics, some of the theories and terms, and also shows some applications of the subject.
The weakness of the book is that there are a lot of formulas given and not enough discussion of how those formulas are derived, so one would need to use other statistics texts to supplement the material. Thus this book cannot stand alone. On the other hand, if one is just trying to get an overview of the subject, then there is a lot to skip over. The authors do make a humorous presentation of the material, so those that are looking for an overview may find this a more enjoyable introduction to the subject.
There is also a lot to do with Statistics that the book does not mention. It does cover probabilities, but when it comes to distributions it focuses only on Standard Normal distributions. I don't believe it ever mentions Uniform, Poisson, or other types of distributions which most Statistics courses cover.
The best part of the book is the examples, some of which are carried through for several chapters to help the reader better understand the subject. Although, even with the examples they are a bit inconsistent in their presentation. For example, in one case they started to discuss the use of statistics to compare the salaries of male and female employees in the same job, but they never complete the discussion. The examples of racial bias in jury selection, and the gas mileage comparison of two different types of gas are much more complete.
This is a decent book, but not up to the level of Gonick's excellent "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, and not strong enough to give it more than three stars.
Very funny and cute book. I love it! March 19, 2004
Zev Saftlas (Brooklyn, NY United States)
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you want to learn complicated things like statistics, but are feeling quite overwhelmed by the complexity, I highly recommend you learn visually from a book like this. Larry has a great sense of humor and is a creative genius. Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated
Showing reviews 26-30 of 59
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