Quantitative methods 1
Dr Richard Egudo, Dr Harmindar Nath and Dr David Wilson
6 points * First semester * 3 hours lectures and 2 x 1 hour tutorials per week * Gippsland/Distance * Prerequisites: The subject assumes a mathematical background at about Year 11 (fifth form) level * Prohibitions: MAT1060
Objectives The objectives of this subject are for students to learn some of the basic mathematical and statistical techniques used in analysis of business problems and in the decision making based on such analysis; develop skills in carrying out financial calculations for cases such as amortisation, sinking funds and equations of value; understand the calculation of a series of index numbers, and its uses; to be able to use linear, quadratic and logarithmic functions in business calculations; understand the collection and analysis of data using elementary statistical ideas, and to apply models based on the normal distribution to practical problems; be able to formulate and test hypotheses, and to use linear regression methods.
Synopsis Topics covered include basic mathematical concepts, functions and their graphs, 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, 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: 40% * Examination: 60%
Prescribed texts
Waxman P Business mathematics and statistics 3rd edn, Prentice-Hall, 1993
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