Page 4 - Statistics and Data Analysis in Geology

Preface

My original motivation for writing this book, back in 1973, was very simple. Teach-
ing the techniques of data analysis to engineers and natural scientists, both uni-
versity students and industry practitioners, would be easier, I reasoned, if I had
a suitable textbook. It was. By 1986 when I revised Statistics and Data Analysis in
Geology for its second edition, technology had progressed to the point that personal
computers were almost commonplace and every young geologist was expected to
have at least some familiarity with computing and analysis of data. This was a time
of transition when personal computers offered the freedom of access and ease
of use missing in the centralized mainframe environment, but these PC’s lacked
the power and speed necessary for many geological applications. In the interven-
ing years since the appearance of the second edition, computing technology has
evolved with almost unbelievable speed. I now have on my desktop a small crys-
talline cube, a “supercomputer” capable of outperforming devices that existed a
decade ago at only a few sites in the world.
Although computing tools have advanced rapidly, our skills as educators have
not kept pace. Almost all undergraduate students in the natural sciences and engi-
neering, including the Earth sciences, are required to take classes in mathematics,
statistics, data analysis, and computing. Graduate students, as a matter of course,
are expected to have proficiency in these areas. Unfortunately, Earth science stu-
dents voice an almost universal complaint: material taught in such courses is not
relevant to their studies. In part this criticism reflects a certain mental rigidity
present in some young minds that refuse to make an effort to stretch their imagi-
nations. But it also reflects, in part, the absence of anything quantitative in many
geology courses.
It is not surprising when students protest, “Why should I study this dull and
boring topic when the material is never used in my field?” In an attempt to con-
tribute to the solution of this educational impasse, I’ve made a major change in
this edition of my book. The text now includes numerous geological data sets that
illustrate how specific computational procedures can be applied to problems in the
Earth sciences. In addition, each chapter ends with a set of exercises of greater or
lesser complexity that the student can address using methods discussed in the text.
It should be noted that there is no “teacher’s manual” containing correct answers.
Like most real-world situations, there may be more than one solution to a problem.
An answer may depend upon how a question is framed. Acknowledging that no
students, not even graduate assistants, like to do drudge work such as data entry,
I’ve provided all of the data for examples and exercises as digital files on the World
Wide Web. Thus, while there may be many excuses for failing to work an exercise,
entering data incorrectly should not be one of them!
We have already noted that computing technology has changed enormously
during the 28 years this book has been in print. Computers are no longer made
that can read floppy disks and double-sided diskettes are being phased out by
optical disks. We can be sure that computer technology will continue to evolve at a
dizzying pace; to provide some degree of security from obsolescence, the data files
are available on the World Wide Web at two sites, one maintained by John Wiley &
Sons and the other by the Kansas Geological Survey. The WWW addresses are
http://www.wiley.com/college/davis
and
http://www.kgs. ku.edu/Mathgeo/Books/Stat/index.html

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