The lady tasting tea : how statistics revolutionized science in the twentieth century

Select an Action

Title:

Author:

Salsburg, David, 1931-

ISBN:

9780805071344

Personal Author:

Salsburg, David, 1931-

Publication Information:

New York : W.H. Freeman and CO., 2001.

Physical Description:

xi, 340 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

Contents:

1. The lady tasting tea -- 2. The skew distributions -- 3. That dear Mr. Gosset -- 4. Raking over the muck heap -- 5. "Studies in crop variation" -- 6. "The hundred-year flood" -- 7. Fisher triumphant -- 8. The dose that kills -- 9. The bell-shaped curve -- 10. Testing the goodness of fit -- 11. Hypothesis testing -- 12. The confidence trick -- 13. The Bayesian theory -- 14. The Mozart of mathematics -- 15. The worm's eye view -- 16. Doing away with parameters -- 17. When part is better than the whole -- 18. Does smoking cause cancer? -- 19. If you want the best person... -- 20. Just a plain Texas farm boy -- 21. A genius in the family -- 22. The Picasso of statistics -- 23. Dealing with contamination -- 24. The man who remade industry -- 25. Advice from the lady in black -- 26. The march of the Martingales -- 27. The intent to treat -- 28. The computer turns upon itself -- 29. The idol with feet of clay.

Subject Term:

Science -- Statistical methods -- History -- 20th century.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015724947	001.4220904 S175L 2001	1	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

An insightful, revealing history of the magical mathematics that transformed our world. The Lady Tasting Tea is not a book of dry facts and figures, but the history of great individuals who dared to look at the world in a new way.

At a summer tea party in Cambridge, England, a guest states that tea poured into milk tastes different from milk poured into tea. Her notion is shouted down by the scientific minds of the group. But one man, Ronald Fisher, proposes to scientifically test the hypothesis. There is no better person to conduct such an experiment, for Fisher is a pioneer in the field of statistics.

The Lady Tasting Tea spotlights not only Fisher's theories but also the revolutionary ideas of dozens of men and women which affect our modern everyday lives. Writing with verve and wit, David Salsburg traces breakthroughs ranging from the rise and fall of Karl Pearson's theories to the methods of quality control that rebuilt postwar Japan's economy, including a pivotal early study on the capacity of a small beer cask at the Guinness brewing factory. Brimming with intriguing tidbits and colorful characters, The Lady Tasting Tea salutes the spirit of those who dared to look at the world in a new way.