The R Student Companion

ISBN-13: 9781439875407 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 360 str.

Brian Dennis

Opis

R is the amazing, free, open-access software package for scientific graphs and calculations used by scientists worldwide. The R Student Companion is a student-oriented manual describing how to use R in high school and college science and mathematics courses. Written for beginners in scientific computation, the book assumes the reader has just some high school algebra and has no computer programming background. The author presents applications drawn from all sciences and social sciences and includes the most often used features of R in an appendix. In addition, each chapter provides a set of computational challenges: exercises in R calculations that are designed to be performed alone or in groups. Several of the chapters explore algebra concepts that are highly useful in scientific applications, such as quadratic equations, systems of linear equations, trigonometric functions, and exponential functions. Each chapter provides an instructional review of the algebra concept, followed by a hands-on guide to performing calculations and graphing in R. R is intuitive, even fun. Fantastic, publication-quality graphs of data, equations, or both can be produced with little effort. By integrating mathematical computation and scientific illustration early in a student s development, R use can enhance one's understanding of even the most difficult scientific concepts. While R has gained a strong reputation as a package for statistical analysis, The R Student Companion approaches R more completely as a comprehensive tool for scientific computing and graphing. "

Spis treści

Introduction: Getting Started with R. R Scripts. Functions. Basic Graphs. Data Input and Output. Loops. Logic and Control. Quadratic Functions. Trigonometric Functions. Exponential and Logarithmic Functions. Matrix Arithmetic. Systems of Linear Equations. Advanced Graphs. Probability and Simulation. Fitting Models to Data. Conclusion—It Doesn’t Take a Rocket Scientist. Appendix A: Installing R. Appendix B: Getting Help. Appendix C: Common R Expressions. Index.

O autorze

Brian Dennis is a professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences and the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Idaho. He received a master's degree in statistics and a Ph.D. in ecology from The Pennsylvania State University. He has authored over 70 scientific articles on applications of statistics and mathematical modeling in ecology and natural resource management. He has been enthusiastically using R in his scientific work and teaching R in his courses for a decade.