Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Mathematics

Understanding Kurtosis: Distribution Shape

Kurtosis is a statistical measure that describes the shape of a distribution’s tails compared to a normal distribution. It tells us whether the data are heavy-tailed or light-tailed.

In simple terms, kurtosis indicates the degree of peakedness and the presence of outliers in data.

Types of Kurtosis

• Mesokurtic: Normal distribution (kurtosis = 3).
• Leptokurtic: More peaked, heavy tails (kurtosis > 3).
• Platykurtic: Flatter peak, light tails (kurtosis < 3).

Key Concepts in Hypothesis Testing

1. Null Hypothesis (H₀)

It is a statistical statement that assumes no effect or no difference.

Example: “There is no difference between two groups.”

2. Alternative Hypothesis (H₁ / Hₐ)

It is the opposite of the... Continue reading "Key Statistical Concepts: Kurtosis & Hypothesis Testing" »

Hypothesis Testing

Statistical Test Selection

1. If the population standard deviation is unknown and the sample size is less than 30: t-test

2. If the population standard deviation is known and the sample size is less than 30: t-test

7. Hypothesis test on population mean; n = 25; σ = 2.5: z-test

8. Hypothesis test on population mean; n = 50; s = 7.2: z-test

18. Test statistic for sample size above 30: z-test

19. Test statistic when population standard deviation is known: z-test

20. Test statistic when population standard deviation is unknown: t-test

21. When to use the t-test: I and II

24. Optimal sample size for z-test: Equal to or larger than 30

Hypotheses and Significance

3. H₀: μ = 30

4. H₁: μ > 30

5. No

9. False: The alternative hypothesis typically... Continue reading "Hypothesis Testing: A Concise Statistical Method Reference" »

What is Data Science?

• An interdisciplinary field combining statistics, computer science, and business knowledge.
• Its goal is to extract valuable insights and knowledge from data (both structured and unstructured).
• It answers key business questions: what happened, why, what will happen, and what to do about it.
• The process involves collecting, cleaning, processing, analyzing, and communicating data insights.

Statistical Inference: Making Educated Guesses

• It's the process of using sample data to make educated guesses or draw conclusions about a much larger population.
• Essentially, it lets you make generalizations about a whole group based on a smaller part of it.

Key Goals of Statistical Inference

• Estimation: To guess the value of a population parameter

Question 1: Decimal Representation of a Fraction

Question: Consider the fraction 6/7. The decimal representation of this fraction is:

Answer: 6 ÷ 7 = 0.857142857... (repeating)

Question 2: Vaccinated to Unvaccinated Ratio

Question: If 60% of a population is vaccinated, what is the ratio of vaccinated to unvaccinated individuals?

Answer: 60% vaccinated → 60 : 40 → Simplified = 3 : 2

Question 3: Property Tax Calculation

Question: A property has been assessed at $225,000. The mill rate is 14.5. To find the property tax, you would multiply the assessed value by:

Answer: The mill rate of 14.5 means $14.50 per $1,000 of assessed value. To convert this to a decimal factor, divide by 1,000:

• 14.5 ÷ 1,000 = 0.0145
• Property tax = $225,000 × 0.0145 = $3,262.

Key Concepts in Engineering Economics

Engineering Economics is the science dealing with quantitative analysis techniques for selecting the most preferable alternative from several technically viable options.

Fundamental Principles

Four fundamental principles must be applied in all engineering economic decisions:

• The time value of money
• Differential (or incremental) cost and revenue
• Marginal cost and revenue
• The trade-off between risk and reward

Core Terminology Explained

Ethics

A set of principles that guides a decision-maker in distinguishing between right and wrong.

Market Interest Rate

The interest rate quoted by financial institutions, which refers to the cost of money for borrowers or the earnings from money for lenders.

Interest Rate

The cost, or price,

Chapter 1: Understanding Variables

Types of Variables

• Categorical: Smoker (current, former, no)
• Ordinal: Non, light, moderate, heavy smoker (ordered categories)
• Quantitative: BMI, Age, Weight (numerical measurements)

Key Definitions

• Observation: Measurements are made (individual or aggregate).
• Variable: The generic characteristic we measure (e.g., age).
• Value: A realized measurement (e.g., 27).

Chapter 2: Statistical Studies

Surveys: Census and Sampling

• Goal: Describe population characteristics.
• Census: Attempts to reach the entire population (costly, time-consuming).
• Sampling: Uses a sample of the population (allows for inferences, saves time and money).
• Simple Random Sampling: Based on probability.
• Issues with Sampling: Under-coverage, volunteer bias,

Parametric Inference Fundamentals

The probability distribution of the population under study is known, except for a finite number of parameters. Its goal is to estimate those parameters. Examples include the T-test and ANOVA.

Non-Parametric Inference Basics

The distribution of the population is not known. It is used to test the assumptions of parametric methods, for example, to check if the population distribution is normal.

What is a Statistic?

A random variable function of the sample that does not depend on the unknown parameter.

Understanding Estimators

A statistic whose values are acceptable for estimating an unknown parameter.

Unbiasedness in Estimation

We do not allow systematic overestimation or underestimation of the parameter, which would result... Continue reading "Statistical Inference & Hypothesis Testing Concepts" »

De Morgan's Law

De Morgan's Law: (Flip if the union is true)

, image of set: [min, max]; one-to-one: horizontal line test; Onto: Image must equal domain; Bijective: one-to-one and Onto

|| EV

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Possible Outcomes and Probability Calculations

• Repetition formula: n^k
  • Example: 5 awards (k) and 30 students (n), with no limit to awards per student.
• Permutation formula: P(n, k) = n! / (n - k)!
  • Example: Each student gets 1 award, so the number of students decreases by one each award.
• No overlap probability: P(n, k) / repetition formula
• Arrangements: a = slots → a! can be multiplied by arrangements within slots
• Die sum probability:
  • List combinations that lead to the sum for each die.
  • If a die is rolled multiple times, each combination has (rolls)! permutations.
  • Add

AdaBoost: Adaptive Boosting Explained

AdaBoost is one of the simplest and earliest boosting algorithms. The main idea behind AdaBoost is to combine many weak learners (models that do slightly better than random guessing) into one strong learner.

It works by training multiple models one after another. After each model, the algorithm checks which data points were predicted wrong. It then gives more importance (weight) to those wrongly predicted samples so that the next model focuses more on correcting those mistakes.

Each new model tries to fix the errors made by the previous ones. At the end, all models are combined using weighted voting to make the final prediction. This helps improve accuracy and reduces errors.

Key Characteristics of AdaBoost

• Combines

Floating Point Systems & Numerical Error

A Floating Point (FP) System represents numbers as: x = ± (d₀ + d₁/β + d₂/β² + ... + d_t-1/β^(t-1)). The Unit Roundoff (u) is defined as ε_machine/2, where fl(1 + ε) > 1.

Rounding to Nearest

When rounding to the nearest representable number, fl(x) = x(1 + ε) where |ε|.

IEEE 754 Standard for Floating Point

Normalized Numbers

If the exponent (e) is not equal to 0, it's a normalized FP number. The value is x = (-1)^sign ⋅ β^{(e - offset)} ⋅ (1.d₁ d₂...d_t-1).

Denormalized Numbers

If the exponent (e) is 0, the number is denormalized. The value is x = (-1)^sign ⋅ β^{(e - offset + 1)} ⋅ (0.d₁ d₂...d_t-1). The sticky bit 0 is free because it is always determined by the value of exponent e.

Exceptional Values

• If