Raising the bar

Statistical calculator

In my book I explained how one can use Excel to do statistical simulations and replace statistical tables commonly used in statistics courses. Here I go one step further by providing a free statistical calculator that replaces the following tables from the book by Newbold et al.:

Table 1 Cumulative Distribution Function, F(z), of the Standard Normal Distribution Table

Table 2 Probability Function of the Binomial Distribution

Table 5 Individual Poisson Probabilities

Table 7a Upper Critical Values of Chi-Square Distribution with Degrees of Freedom

Table 8 Upper Critical Values of Student’s t Distribution with Degrees of Freedom

Tables 9a, 9b Upper Critical Values of the F Distribution

The calculator is just a Google sheet with statistical functions, see Picture 1:

Picture 1. Calculator using Google sheet

How to use Calculator

1. Open an account at gmail.com, if you haven't already. Open Google Drive.
2. Install Google sheets on your phone.
3. Find the sheet on my Google drive and copy it to your Google drive (File/Make a copy). An icon of my calculator will appear in your drive. That's not the file, it's just a link to my file. To the right of it there are three dots indicating options. One of them is "Make a copy", so use that one. The copy will be in your drive. After that you can delete the link to my file. You might want to rename "Copy of Calculator" as "Calculator".
4. Open the file on your drive using Google sheets. Your Calculator is ready!
5. When you click a cell, you can enter what you need either in the formula bar at the bottom or directly in the cell. You can also see the functions I embedded in the sheet.
6. In cell A1, for example, you can enter any legitimate formula with numbers, arithmetic signs, and Google sheet functions. Be sure to start it with =,+ or - and to press the checkmark on the right of the formula bar after you finish.
7. The cells below A1 replace the tables listed above. Beside each function there is a verbal description and further to the right - a graphical illustration (which is not in Picture 1).
8. On the tab named Regression you can calculate the slope and intercept. The sample size must be 10.
9. Keep in mind that tables for continuous distributions need two functions. For example, in case of the standard normal distribution one function allows you to go from probability (area of the left tail) to the cutting value on the horizontal axis. The other function goes from the cutting value on the horizontal axis to probability.
10. Feel free to add new sheets or functions as you may need. You will have to do this on a tablet or computer.