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The Manga Guide to Statistics
stoolpigeon writes "Many manga titles that are popular in Japan are being translated into English and published in the United States. This trend continues with a book that puts a slightly different spin on manga. The Manga Guide to Statistics, part of a series already popular in Japan, seeks to entertain while it informs. There are many elements here that can be found in any manga; a young love-struck girl, giant eyes, small noses and exaggerated emotional responses. What many may not have seen in manga before are things like calculating the mean, median and deviation of bowling scores. And that is just the start." Read below for the rest of JR's review.
The Manga Guide to Statistics
author
Shin Takahashi
pages
222
publisher
No Starch Press
rating
7/10
reviewer
JR Peck
ISBN
978-1-59327-189-3
summary
Statistics with heart-pounding excitement!
The story line is relatively simple. The protagonist, Rui is a teenage girl. One night her father brings home a co-worker Mr. Igarashi. Rui is quite smitten with Mr. Igarashi and tells her father that she is interesting in learning about statistics so that she can be tutored by Mr. Igarashi. The day of her first lesson, her tutor shows up and it is not who she expects. Rather than her heart-throb it is another of her father's co-workers Mamoru Yamamoto. Rui is crushed but plunges ahead, heart still set on hooking up with Mr. Igarashi.
If the idea of a fifteen year old bouncing about in skimpy outfits while pursuing a relationship with one of her father's co-workers sounds strange to you, welcome to the world of manga. If you've already read a lot of it this should sound pretty normal. It provides context as the book covers various topics in statistics and also injects quite a bit of humor into the story. That said, in the end of it all math is math. The story does provide a framework around what is presented but underneath it all this is a book that is trying to teach statistics and so my first question was "How does it do in that regard?"
The book follows a standard format through each chapter. A comic section presents some new facet of the story and then that is tied into the statistics concept that will be covered. Here the math and story are blended together. As the book moves further along these sections become increasingly more text heavy and contain less graphics. That section is followed with exercises. Here I have a small issue. The exercises are sometimes numbered, sometimes not and there seems to be absolutely no pattern or system that regulates this numbering. The answers immediately follow the exercises so it doesn't really cause any problems. I can only guess the numbers are related to an issue from the translation process. I couldn't figure it out.
The instruction and exercises are not watered down to somehow fit into the whole making math interesting theme. This was my first concern. That in an attempt to make it fun the math would not be correct or somehow watered down. This isn't the case. In fact, for a person to really get some good use out of this book I would say that they need to have a very strong command of algebra and at the very least some familiarity with calculus.
There is an entire section in the back of the book about how to do statistics using Microsoft Excel. When some formulaes are presented the book says that knowing it is not necessary but the reader is still going to see things referenced like integration and derivatives. But when, for example, Mr. Yamamoto is teaching Rui about chi-square distribution and explains to her how to read a probability density function she starts to freak out and he consoles her saying, "Don't worry. You'll never have to learn this formula itself unless you become a mathematician."
But all of the math and tables to do the work for the exercises are presented. A graphing calculator would probably make things easier but I don't think it would be necessary. I think the only other shortcoming is that the exercises are not very numerous. There are usually two or three per chapter. Sometimes they are packaged as one exercise with multiple parts. Having the answers immediately follow the exercise may also make it difficult for the reader to avoid looking at it until they have done the work themselves. The reader should still gain a solid idea of what statistics is all about and the math behind it. I wouldn't say they will have a deep understanding of the subject but they will also have moved well beyond a cursory introduction.
The story is silly and sets up some humorous examples of how to use statistics. Ramen noodle prices get graphed, Rui looks at grading on a curve and explores why her and a class mate get different grades for identical scores. Cramer's coefficient is used to examine how boys and girls prefer to be asked out. I thought that this was helpful not only because it helps to keep the readers interest but because it also moves the problems from the abstract to more concrete applications.
The weak point for me is the lack of examples and exercises. The graphic style of story telling is entertaining but limits the space for more text. This is not a statistics text book and I know that it is not trying to be one but it still limits the usefulness. Rather than giving a thorough education into statistics, it is more of an overview or quick primer. Anyone who picks this up thinking that they will gain a solid mastery of statistics is mistaken.
The jacket states that it will help the reader 'get over the "I'm no good at math" feeling.' I think that the reader had better already have some decent math skills if they want to get the most from the book, but it could be useful in helping the reluctant realize that statistics is not unapproachable. As I said, really all that is required is a good solid grasp of algebra.
I think that the real strength of the book may be in helping younger people to find the entry into this kind of work to be more entertaining. Kids would be, I think, much more likely to actually pick this up and find out if they are interested in statistics as opposed to a regular text book. If they do enjoy it, it could encourage them to go further and really master the subject. A sort of gateway text if you will. It also helps to answer the age old student's question, "Why does this matter?" by giving examples of real world use. I think the book could also be a lot of fun for someone who doesn't need to learn statistics but approaches it as a fun mental exercise, like Sudoku or another math game but with a story line and more complicated problems to solve.
Balancing out the limited amount of work, and the possibility for finding budding statisticians and mathematicians or entertaining those who already enjoy math I think that this book fills a rather unique nichee. I think within that niche it is pretty good, but outside of that may be found lacking and that is why I would rate it as adequate rather than outstanding.
You can purchase The Manga Guide to Statistics from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
If the idea of a fifteen year old bouncing about in skimpy outfits while pursuing a relationship with one of her father's co-workers sounds strange to you, welcome to the world of manga. If you've already read a lot of it this should sound pretty normal. It provides context as the book covers various topics in statistics and also injects quite a bit of humor into the story. That said, in the end of it all math is math. The story does provide a framework around what is presented but underneath it all this is a book that is trying to teach statistics and so my first question was "How does it do in that regard?"
The book follows a standard format through each chapter. A comic section presents some new facet of the story and then that is tied into the statistics concept that will be covered. Here the math and story are blended together. As the book moves further along these sections become increasingly more text heavy and contain less graphics. That section is followed with exercises. Here I have a small issue. The exercises are sometimes numbered, sometimes not and there seems to be absolutely no pattern or system that regulates this numbering. The answers immediately follow the exercises so it doesn't really cause any problems. I can only guess the numbers are related to an issue from the translation process. I couldn't figure it out.
The instruction and exercises are not watered down to somehow fit into the whole making math interesting theme. This was my first concern. That in an attempt to make it fun the math would not be correct or somehow watered down. This isn't the case. In fact, for a person to really get some good use out of this book I would say that they need to have a very strong command of algebra and at the very least some familiarity with calculus.
There is an entire section in the back of the book about how to do statistics using Microsoft Excel. When some formulaes are presented the book says that knowing it is not necessary but the reader is still going to see things referenced like integration and derivatives. But when, for example, Mr. Yamamoto is teaching Rui about chi-square distribution and explains to her how to read a probability density function she starts to freak out and he consoles her saying, "Don't worry. You'll never have to learn this formula itself unless you become a mathematician."
But all of the math and tables to do the work for the exercises are presented. A graphing calculator would probably make things easier but I don't think it would be necessary. I think the only other shortcoming is that the exercises are not very numerous. There are usually two or three per chapter. Sometimes they are packaged as one exercise with multiple parts. Having the answers immediately follow the exercise may also make it difficult for the reader to avoid looking at it until they have done the work themselves. The reader should still gain a solid idea of what statistics is all about and the math behind it. I wouldn't say they will have a deep understanding of the subject but they will also have moved well beyond a cursory introduction.
The story is silly and sets up some humorous examples of how to use statistics. Ramen noodle prices get graphed, Rui looks at grading on a curve and explores why her and a class mate get different grades for identical scores. Cramer's coefficient is used to examine how boys and girls prefer to be asked out. I thought that this was helpful not only because it helps to keep the readers interest but because it also moves the problems from the abstract to more concrete applications.
The weak point for me is the lack of examples and exercises. The graphic style of story telling is entertaining but limits the space for more text. This is not a statistics text book and I know that it is not trying to be one but it still limits the usefulness. Rather than giving a thorough education into statistics, it is more of an overview or quick primer. Anyone who picks this up thinking that they will gain a solid mastery of statistics is mistaken.
The jacket states that it will help the reader 'get over the "I'm no good at math" feeling.' I think that the reader had better already have some decent math skills if they want to get the most from the book, but it could be useful in helping the reluctant realize that statistics is not unapproachable. As I said, really all that is required is a good solid grasp of algebra.
I think that the real strength of the book may be in helping younger people to find the entry into this kind of work to be more entertaining. Kids would be, I think, much more likely to actually pick this up and find out if they are interested in statistics as opposed to a regular text book. If they do enjoy it, it could encourage them to go further and really master the subject. A sort of gateway text if you will. It also helps to answer the age old student's question, "Why does this matter?" by giving examples of real world use. I think the book could also be a lot of fun for someone who doesn't need to learn statistics but approaches it as a fun mental exercise, like Sudoku or another math game but with a story line and more complicated problems to solve.
Balancing out the limited amount of work, and the possibility for finding budding statisticians and mathematicians or entertaining those who already enjoy math I think that this book fills a rather unique nichee. I think within that niche it is pretty good, but outside of that may be found lacking and that is why I would rate it as adequate rather than outstanding.
You can purchase The Manga Guide to Statistics from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Chapter 2 Review Question: 1. What was the average number of tentacles used to penetrate Rui?
Lies, damn Lies and Manga?
alias possession='chmod 666 satan && ls
Unlike the U.S., which pretty much relegated comics to a few juvenile genres (e.g. superheroes, kiddie comedy) back in the 1950s, Japanese manga is produced about just about any subject you can think of, for just about any demographic audience. There are manga for housewives, for businessmen, for little girls, for teenage boys, etc. There are manga about history, economics, cooking... so manga about stastistics isn't really that surprising.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Larry Gonick has been doing this in english for a long time. His books are good. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they have been translated into japanese.
Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guide to Statistics.
It's great to move forward with new innovations, but let's not forget our roots here.
15 is legal in some states.
The graphic style of story telling is entertaining but limits the space for more text.
Well that's silly. If the author wanted more text on subjects they would have written it. Replacing a page of text for a page of graphics makes about as much sense as, well, replacing a page of graphics for a page of text: no replacements are needed.
More Twoson than Cupertino
It's great to move forward with new innovations, but let's not forget our roots here.
15 is legal in some states.
What about in Japan?
Here, check out this gem. Possibly NSFW.
Translation here.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
SHIIIIIII-N
I pre-ordered the Manga Guide to Databases from Amazon. It was due to be released Dec 1st, but Amazon is still waiting on the publisher.
Just a heads up. I don't think it's been scanlated, either.
The correct answer is don't.
But there's still pedophilia, right?
You mean lolicon/shotacon? Drawings are not CP.
These are a trilogy of books written in a fictitious place and time that I used to first learn Trig and Calculus. As the title suggests, it was VERY easy to learn using a story behind all the education.
News for wee/a/boos, stuff that matters.
Cool story bro.
Anyone have any other recommendations for a good statistics reference guide (that I wouldn't be embarrassed to have on my bookshelf)? I'm looking for a book for when I have a question like, "If there's a 50% chance of something happening, what the probability it actually happens after 10 tries," I can just pull out the book, and just find the right formula. I don't care too much about the theory behind it or the derivation, but if the book has those too, I wouldn't mind.
Someone above recommended Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guide to Statistics, so I'll have to check that out. Any other suggestions?
Anyone remember this for real old timer geek cred? Nicely drawn in a vaguely hippy style, some good jokes, and quite mathematically rigorous. I still have a copy.
What was especially nice was that we had an annoying lecturer at U who having got as far as generating an equation would then make handle turning gestures while feeding numbers into it to get a result; a few years later, there was E McSquared's Function Machine, complete with handle, and before the personal computer.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Manga Statistics guide reads you!
Sounds like maths and anything involving an IQ higher than a chimps isn't really for you. Good news is, I hear McDonalds are hiring.
This could have been a good idea, if it weren't for the ridiculous love interest angle.
Let's face it, how many fundamental concepts about science and engineering do we learn, not in school, but from educational programs or segments on TV or in other media. MacGyver, Star Trek, Mythbusters for more solid science. A lot of it is exaggerated yes, but the fact is that dramatic presentations of science do help inspire young people to see science as a career path.
Love interests though, are tacky, hackneyed and generally trite, especially in a work dealing with teenagers. Angst ridden, irrational and melodramatic farces are not the appropriate setting in which to sell science, mathematics or statistics. Many teenagers will be attracted to these fields, and indeed others, as an escape from all the bullshit they have to put up with in teenage social circles. Throwing all that bullshit right back into a publication designed to sell science is going to be counterproductive. People do not read Sci-Fi novels for the sex(in most cases).
It is particularly poor form for the writer to make the main character a young girl, and to have her more interested in a silly relationship than in the topic the manga is supposed to be promoting. And yes, crushes and such are silly and frankly demeaning things in the way they are portrayed, particularly when it comes to young women and girls. It's a slap in the face to every girl with an interest in STEM to open this publication and have their supposed role model revert to a giggling schoolgirl in a mini-skirt chasing a man. This manga is probably not going to convert many talented people to statistics.
I think the general pervasiveness of love interests, sex, etc in representations of young people in the media, is due more to adult obsession with the sexual lives of teenagers, rather than the reality of teenage life. In fact, the reality is that teenagers are having less sex now than in 1991. The stereotyped view of teenage life we are presented with is probably exaggerated/and or out of date.
So writers, please. Sell the science, not the sex.
May the Maths Be with you!
My gf was taking statistics last semester, her first math class in 10 years. She's dyslexic, particularly with respect to numbers, and was terrified of the class and I figured the book might help.
Both of us found the format and presentation to be more distracting than informational.
If you think statistics is boring, maybe this will make it interesting. If you think statistics is *difficult*, this probably won't do anything for you that a conventional stats book, except provide pretty pictures. And, since story problems don't seem to make people learn better than just learning the basic math using abstract variable names, why not just do that?
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Any age is OK in Japan, as long as the genitals are blurred out.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
It's not only in the far east that such different subjects are sometimes juxtaposed for effect.
Don't forget our own utterly fantastic Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics on this side of the world, which really deserves a medal. If a blend of pop culture and highly mathematical science raises a smile at the same time as presenting some serious physics, maybe the approach isn't as barmy as it seems.
Also remember that we do something similar in computing too, for instance in Head First Design Patterns and other books in the series, which present their material through silly little stories. A lot of people seem to like that approach.
There's more than one way to skin a cat, and that seems to apply to technical literature too.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
15 is legal in some states.
Only with a partner between the ages of 15 and 18, excluding marriage, in many states. Statutory rape laws and all that. Not the best citation, but it works.
open source modern art: laser taggi
National age of consent is 13, prefectures may have their own additional restrictions.
i could have sworn the text said she wanted to be tortured...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I thought I had seen that - I just did a quick skim back through the book and maybe I was mistaken. It does say she's a highschool junior - which would probably be older than 15 - 16 or 17 maybe. I'm not sure of the age Japanese children start grade school.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
What many may not have seen in manga before are things like calculating the mean, median and deviation of bowling scores.
But I'd be pretty surprised if there was ANY kind of deviation they haven't covered.
Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series (mostly). Stuff by R Crumb, Foolbert Sturgeon, whoever did the Freak Bros. Plenty of online American comics that aren't about superheroes (Achewood, Octopus Pie, Cat and Girl)... there are a lot. They're just not mainstream.
Tell that to the Aussies...
set in a world where pricking your finger results in 1.2435466356356+10E gallons of blood spewing out
Using such a high degree of precision is typically uncalled for in manga. In such cases simply saying "OVER 9000" will suffice.
Is there a Manga Guide to Fortran, or whatever it is they are teaching kids these days?
For those too young to remember: The cover, at the author's web site.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The page you are looking at says
"she wants to be tortured."
Turn back one page:
"What are the odds that"
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I picked up "Probability and Statistics for Computer Scientists" by Michael Baron when I was doing my thesis research, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a textbook, and it reads like a textbook, but as long as you have a decent understanding of elementary calculus and a bit of linear algebra, everything else is explained, step by step.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
Another fine example of comic humor and technical literature combined...
Chunky bacon.
Google it. If you dare.
Sold!
'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
You mean there's more than one way to write a book about each of the ways to skin a cat, too?!
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Anyone know of any popular "instructional series" comic books/graphic novels?
Larry Gonick's work.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
You can check out, "Who is Fourier" which is a gentle introduction to Fourier series in cartoon style....Also from Japan....
The 95% confidence interval is fifteen years, 8 months to sixteen and three.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
...it involves scantily clad teenage girls and tentacle rape
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
The cat might be skinned or it might not. You can't tell without opening the box.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
or how about mecha per capita?
Noone. Nothing. Nowhere.
http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0201615630
pretty strange -I never did figure out how much it would help with Java but I did try to read it.
http://www.mrbunny.com/
Apparently he also did a book on ActiveX -an appropriate subject for twisted or obtuse humor as I think that was the spirit in which it was created.
I'm just sayin'
Yeah, but how many of them /aren't/ superhero comics?
Any of them?
Can you name even one?
Didn't think so.
I'm not an American, I don't even live there, but I have read a lot of Mickey and Donald when I was I kid (still like to read them even now), does that count as non-superhero comic?
I can use it to hide the "other" magna I'm "reading."
I think it's a phase. When you're 15, Manga is the coolest thing on the planet. Then you realize that the 95% crap rule is just as strictly enforced in Japan as elsewhere, except that it's somehow worse; even the worst schlock looks pretty competent. It's a lot like American television, now that I think about it.
I went through a ten year period of "I AM SICK TO DEATH OF JAPANESE CULTURE". Then I got older and started to wonder where the heck the baby was. (Geddit? Cuz I threw it out with the bathwater. . ? Never mind.) --And that the 5% AWESOME rule applies in Japan as it does anywhere else on the planet, except that since Japan exports more of raw media than, say, Sweden or Brazil, even 5% is actually pretty significant. You still have to wear hip-waders, though. And perhaps the rule is more like 2%).
Anyway, it seems to work much the same way as America does with its export of movie and television, which alter and Americanize cultures all over the planet. Ha ha! Japan is giving us some of our own medicine, re-writing brain-code for legions of young Westerners. That ought to mess things up pretty good. And it may not even be a negative thing; Sharing cultural strengths can lead to greater human understanding and perspective across the globe. It's nice to think that it's not all uni-directional anymore. But still. . . Japan and the U.S.? Wow. What a pair of seriously whacked-out cultures to pick.
The U.S. with its repressed sex issues, guns and 'splosions. . , and Japan with it's even more repressed sex issues and endless highschool dramas. And Big Robots. Or was that last decade?
Are robots still big in Japan?
(Geddit? Are robots still BIG in. . . Never mind.)
-FL
The books tend to be slow and superficial. Their target audience seems to be people for whom the material would be otherwise inaccessible or uninteresting. If you want to study a given topic, there are better books. If you want to read manga, there are plenty of titles that are more interesting, bizarre or lurid.
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
Aussies? Tell that to the other Americans too!
Published by No Starch? Anybody got clue what that means?
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
"If the idea of a fifteen year old bouncing about in skimpy outfits while pursuing a relationship with one of her father's co-workers sounds strange to you, welcome to the world of manga"
.. :)
No, what's strange is someone her fathers age still reading MANGA comics
davecb5620@gmail.com
I spent a little while and found it. The title translates to Analysis Magic Schoolgirl Misaki Magical Open.
There was even a slashdot.jp article on it back in 2004. I'd tell you what the conclusion of the comments was, but there weren't any posters both technically capable of understanding the book and interested in it, so almost all of the comments were off-topic. I'm glad the English version of slashdot isn't like that...
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
she is interesting in learning about statistics
You must have read the Dutch book "We Always get our Sin Too"
By the way, I've seen a similar manga title in stores some time ago which targeted starting a successful career or something like that.
I am not devoid of humor.