Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis This subject introduces some of the fundamental mathematical and statistical methods used most commonly in business planning and decision-making. Included are basic mathematical concepts, functions and their graphics, exponential and logarithmic functions. Solutions of systems of linear equations and inequations. Arithmetic and geometric sequences; financial calculations relating to simple and compound interest, discount notes, annuities, amortisation, sinking funds and equations of value. Index numbers, especially the Australian CPI and its uses. Statistics - nature of statistical investigations, collection, presentation and interpretation of data; measures of centrality and dispersion; population distributions, the normal distribution; the sampling distribution of the sample mean; statistical inference - interval estimation for the population mean (large and small samples), choosing the sample size, sampling from a small population, basic concepts for hypothesis testing, one-tailed and two-tailed testing of hypotheses, testing an hypothesis about the population mean (large and small samples); introduction to simple linear regression.
Assessment Assignments: 50% + Examination: 50%
Prescribed texts