In today’s world, evidence based (quantitative data) methods
of approaching and handling a problem have become indispensable. This is due to
cheap computing facilities/software available in the laptop and computers.
These “computational aids” help crunch large set of numbers is a very short
time. There are different approaches for this process. There is a spreadsheet
like approach (for example MS Excel) or a user friendly software approach (like
SPSS-Statistical Package for Social Sciences) or a statistical computing
environment type approach in the form of a freeware (like R software) or
finally a programming language approach with say FORTRAN.
Laborious and time consuming calculations done previously by
hand or with the help of a simple pocket calculator can now be “mechanized” with
the help of computer software. This way tedious calculation taking hours to solve
can now be done within minutes. This
saves us from the drudgery of doing long calculations.
These calculations based on certain
formula which was previously done by hand form the foundation of such computer
programs and software. Using “old fashioned” technique of solving simple
versions of such mathematical problems helps us in getting a feel of the
problem. So the technique of doing a sum by hand with a pocket calculator
before trying it in the software is also necessary. This way we can keep track of
the algorithm needed for implementation of a specific statistical methodology
in specific software.
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