Università Roma Tre

This course will provide statistical, mathematical and computer competences needed to conduct an experiment, synthesizing the data and interpret the obtained results within a theory.

Lessons and practical exercises will drive the student through software tools and statistical theory for:
i) treatment, synthesis and analysis of the experimental data;
ii) statistical evaluation of errors and confidence intervals;
iii) evaluation of the results using statistical inference tests;
iv) the comparison of the results with a theory;
v) the parameter determination from data refinement.

The physical and statistical principles that govern the experimental observations and cause the uncertainties associated with measurements and data processing will be illustrated.

Basics information on probability and statistical models (distributions) will be provided. Major "hypothesis rejection tests" (Z-test, T-test, chi-square) are described as tools data interpretation and comparison of experimental results.

Essential knowledge on PC architecture and working principles is given. Numerical analysis and logic operations are introduced. Basic software for experimental data treatment is used: EXCEL (office), CALC (OpenOffice), Gnuplot