Introduction : why this book? -- Important concepts from probability theory -- Populations and samples : the meaning of "statistics" -- Degrees of freedom -- Introduction to distributions and probability sampling -- The normal distribution -- Alternative ways to calculate standard deviation -- The central limit theorem -- Synthesis of variance -- Where are we and where are we going? -- More and different statistics -- The T statistic -- Distribution of means -- One-and two-tailed tests -- Philosophical interlude -- Biased and unbiased estimators -- The variance of variance -- Hypothesis testing of chi-square -- More hypothesis testing -- Statistical inferences -- How to count -- And still counting -- Contingency tables -- What do you mean : random? -- The F statistic -- Precision and accuracy : introduction to analysis of variance -- Analysis of variance and statistical design of experiments -- Crossed and nested experiments -- Miscellaneous considerations regarding analysis of variance -- Pitfalls of statistics -- Pitfalls of statistics continued -- Calibration in spectroscopy -- Calibration : linear regression as a statistical technique -- Calibration : error sources in calibration -- Calibration : selecting the calibration samples -- Calibration : developing the calibration model -- Calibration : auxiliary statistics for the calibration model -- The beginning--