Statistics is more important than calculus?

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Do you agree with this one?


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhMKmovNjvc[/youtube]

Mm, not sure. I personally enjoy statistics more than calculus but I am not sure if we use statistics more than calculus. We use calculus in conjunction with physics to moderate our movements, but we use statistics in conjunction with social studies to make decisions.

In my field (Chemical Engineering), it's half and half, though I lean towards calculus being more important. Statistics is extraordinarily important for determining what aspects of a process have the greatest effect on the process itself (most people in my field are there to do quality control, and figuring out what's screwing up your process when something goes wrong). However, I personally consider calculus more important because it helps you understand the processes themselves better, and it's absolutely imperative for theory and innovation of technology.

I'm of the opinion that students should develop competence in mathematical methods before really putting them to use. So yes, calculus before statistics just as people learn calculus before serious physics.

How does that work though. Calculus is just as dependent on statistics (re: limits) as statistics is on calculus (re: deviations).

I study economics. I had more fun learning statistics than calculus. I remember reading a good book about the history of probability called: "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk". I also would like to read another book about statistics called: "The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century".

I managed to get a basic grounding in statistics; I never understood calculus...

How? When I studied analysis we never referred to statistics.

The statistical insignificance reached at a limit is an important stepping stone for being able to establish a limit. Being able to say no more requires a decision based on statistical principles as well as arithmetic. Furthermore, statistics is used to find derivatives and integrals, especially with irregular data inputs. Measuring is part of statistics.

You don't need to define a limit in terms of statistical insignificance, in fact I've never heard of that before. All you need is Weierstrass's condition.

Not sure what you're on about in the rest of your post either, though that may have to do with my spending a lot more time studying analysis than statistics.

Limits were originally described and are still taught, at least in high school level, in terms of statistical insignificance.

Even in highschool, I'm pretty sure the Weierstrass definition is the standard.

A concept I have never even heard of. Would you care to elaborate on how you think statistics has anything whatsoever to do with limits?

(Here's me, with an MA in Mathematics, which I obtained without touching any statistics whatsoever. I never really liked such grubby "practical" bits of mathematics. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.)

One of the main theorems of statistics is the Central Limit Theorem.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem

To prove this and a related set of theorems one needs the concepts of limit and convergence.

ruveyn

I guess this means that statistics uses maths (limits) when studying convergence of ramdom variables but not the other way around. I guess also that statistics mixes probability and maths when studying convergence in probability (which is cool).

I agree that in postgraduate education and the workplace statistics is more important than calculus but up to the first 2 years of undergraduate study Calculus is important. Calculus is necessary for Stats.