Chapter 1
Basic Statistics for DOE
One thing seems certain—that nothing certain exists.
Pliny the Elder, Roman scholar (CE 23–79)
Statistics means never having to say you’re certain.
Slogan on shirt sold by the American Statistical Association (ASA)
Most technical professionals express a mixture of fear, frustration, and annoyance when confronted with statistics. It’s hard even to pronounce the word, and many people, particularly after enduring the typical college lecture on the subject, prefer to call it “sadistics.” Statistics, however, are not evil. They are really very useful, especially for design of experiments (DOE). In this chapter, we present basic statistics in a way that highlights the advantages of using them.
Statistics provide ...
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