Basic Statistics:

This section outlines the use of the statistics encountered in Analytical Chemistry, and goes through the basic tools that you will use to approach statistical analysis in chemical measurement. It also outlines the how you can use these tools in Excel™.

If you are already familiar with statistics and numerical analysis, you can skip this section and proceed to Linear Regression Analysis. However, you may find it helpful to briefly review this section to re-familiarize yourself with these concepts, beginning with an overview of statistical analysis.

Section Outline:

Statistics in analytical chemistry
→   Why statistics is important in Analytical Chemistry
Statistical Measures
→   Measures used in statistics, such as mean, variance and standard deviation, and the difference between sample and population
Errors, Uncertainty, and Residuals
→   Calculation of statistical errors in measurements, including a table of volumetric uncertainties, and the definition of the residual
Probability Distributions
→   The normal distribution of a random set of data, and its implications on data analysis
Confidence Levels
→   Definition of confidence levels, or “How sure you are that your conclusions are correct?”
Degrees of Freedom
→   The degrees of freedom is the number of independent observations for a dataset

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