andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

Statistical Questions from the Classroom

Statistical Questions from the Classroom

by J. Michael Shaughnessy and Beth Chance

I was talking with a mathematically-astute friend of mine and told him I lacked confidence in my grasp of statistics. (Insert clever joke about confidence intervals here.) So he recommended this 88-page book published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics as a good refresher on some basic concepts. The book consists of 11 chapters, each one addressing a question frequently asked by statistics students. Continue reading “Statistical Questions from the Classroom” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

101 Things I Learned in Engineering School

101 Things I Learned in Engineering School

by John Kuprenas with Matthew Frederick

Engineering involves the application of mathematics, physics, and chemistry, but “the heart of engineering isn’t calculation; it’s problem solving,” writes John Kuprenas, a civil engineer. Here is a sampling of his insights.

“There’s always a trade-off. Lightness versus strength, response time versus noise, quality versus cost, responsive handling versus soft ride, speed of measurement versus accuracy of measurement, design time versus design quality… It is impossible to maximize the response to every design consideration. Good design is not maximization of every response nor even compromise among them; it’s optimization among alternatives.”

Continue reading “101 Things I Learned in Engineering School” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

Chance

chance

Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, The Stock Market, and Just About Everything Else

By Amir D. Aczel (1950-2015)

This is a book about probability, the “quantitative measure of the likelihood of a given event.” The author applies probability theory in numerous scenarios.

Assuming a World War II pilot had a 2% chance of being shot down on each mission, what are the chances of a pilot being shot down in 50 missions?  Nope—it is not 50 x 0.02. Using the law of unions of independent events, the answer is 1 – 0.9850 = 64%.  In another example, there are three overnight couriers with an on-time record of 90%, 88%, and 92% respectively. If someone sent an important document using all three services, what is the probability of at least one of them delivering on time? The answer is 1 – (0.10 x 0.12 x 0.08) = 99.904%.

“So what have we noticed here? Continue reading “Chance” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

Innumeracy

innumeracy

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences

by John Allen Paulos

Innumeracy refers to mathematical incompetence. Given the frequency of misleading social media memes that simply don’t add up, I’d say the book is as relevant today as it was when published in 1988.

“If the headline reads that unemployment declined from 7.1 percent to 6.8 percent and doesn’t say that the confidence interval is plus or minus 1 percent, one might get the mistaken impression that something good happened. Given the sampling error, however, the ‘decline’ may be nonexistent, or there may even be an increase.” Continue reading “Innumeracy” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

Water 4.0

water-4-0

Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource

by David Sedlak

David Sedlak is a professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In this book he explains the history, science, engineering, and political aspects of water and sewer systems. First, it may be helpful to decode the title:

  • Water 1.0—a system of importing and distributing water.
  • Water 2.0—drinking water treatment including filtration and chlorination.
  • Water 3.0—sewage treatment.
  • Water 4.0—next-generation water systems.

I will focus on some of the more contemporary topics in this summary. Continue reading “Water 4.0” →