People in business, industry, the professions, and government constantly face the task of making decisions based upon incomplete information. The need for decision making is always present. Each time a person makes a decision he faces the risk that the decision may be wrong. People who have the ability to identify relevant facts and the skill to analyze the problem have a better chance to reach the right decision.This book is intended for people who want a mathematically sound, but elementary introduction to statistical reasoning and decision making. The theory of probability, as the foundation upon which the methods of statistics are based, is treated early in the book. Our purpose is to give the reader a sense of the nature and achievements of probability and statistics without making use of calculus. It is a book for beginners in statistics. Emphasis is on the need to understand basic concepts.The presentation in this book emphasizes not the facts of statistics as such, but the type of phenomena and circumstances, the method of proposing problems, and the method of solving problems.
