Applied Statistical Methods and the Chemical Industry

Abstract

The discipline of statistics is the study of effective methods of data collection, data summarization, and (data based, quantitative) inference making in a framework that explicitly recognizes the reality of nonnegligible variation in real-world processes and measurements. The ultimate goal of the field is to provide tools for extracting the maximum amount of useful information about a noisy physical process from a given investment of data collection and analysis resources. The primary purposes of this chapter are to indicate in concrete terms the nature of some existing methods of applied statistics that are particularly appropriate to industrial chemistry, and to provide an entry into the statistical literature for those readers who find in the discussion here reasons to believe that statistical tools can help them be effective in their work.