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Text, figures, and examples for the refresher course ''practical statistics for the health physicist''

Conference ·
OSTI ID:4396901

From eighteenth Health Physics Society meeting; Miami Beach, Florida, USA (17 Jun 1973). A refresher course to provide a practical approach to the use of statistical concepts in interpreting data related to problems of applied health physics is given. After a brief review of the theoretical probability distributions, emphasis is placed on counting statistics, in particular the concept of the standard deviation. In this category the following topics are covered: (1) calculation of the standard deviation, (2) propagation of errors (when two or more quantities are combined arithmetically or via a formula), (3) confidence limits, and (4) the null hypothesis. The following topics are also discussed. (1) Chi-Square in relation to checking the reliability of a counting instrument, (2) correction factors for deadtime losses, and (3) for the case of a decaying source. (auth)

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, N.Y. (USA)
NSA Number:
NSA-29-000452
OSTI ID:
4396901
Report Number(s):
BNL--18221; CONF-730603--13
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English