Includes bibliographical references (pages 499-504) and index.

pt. I. Introduction to scientific measurement. The meaning of measurement -- The conduct of an experimental investigation -- The scientific report -- Procedure in a laboratory and the laboratory notebook -- Experimental errors -- Rejection of data: Chauvenet's criterion and its dangers -- The philosophy of sampling and the definition of statistical concepts -- Discussion of the analysis of samples -- Discussion of discrete and continuous frequency distributions and histograms -- Propagation of error and least squares -- pt. II. Introduction to graphical techniques and curve fitting. Display graphs -- Correlation graphs -- Graphs relating more than two variables -- Straight-line graphs and fitting -- Reduction to straight-line graphs -- Calculating charts -- pt. III. Probability. The meaning of probability -- Some arithmetic on combinations and permutations -- Event calculus--the logic of probability -- Joint probability distributions and functions of random variables -- Geometrical probability, random numbers, and Monte Carlo experiments -- pt. IV. Some probability distributions and applications. The binomial distribution -- The hypergeometric distribution -- The Poisson distribution -- The Gaussian or normal distribution -- The chi-square distribution -- Student's t distribution -- Miscellaneous other probability distributions and examples -- pt. V. Statistical inference. Estimation -- Estimation and the method of maximum likelihood -- Hypothesis testing and significance -- Chi-square minimization methods -- Least-squares methods; curve fitting.