This book is the first to make chi-squared model testing, one of the data analysis methods used to discover the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, accessible to undergraduate students in introductory physics laboratory courses. By including uncertainties in the curve fitting, chi-squared data analysis improves on the centuries old ordinary least squares and linear regression methods and combines best fit parameter estimation and model testing in one method. A toolkit of essential statistical and experimental concepts is developed from the ground up with novel features to interest even those ... More

This book is the first to make chi-squared model testing, one of the data analysis methods used to discover the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, accessible to undergraduate students in introductory physics laboratory courses. By including uncertainties in the curve fitting, chi-squared data analysis improves on the centuries old ordinary least squares and linear regression methods and combines best fit parameter estimation and model testing in one method. A toolkit of essential statistical and experimental concepts is developed from the ground up with novel features to interest even those familiar with the material. The presentation of one- and two-parameter chi-squared model testing, requiring only elementary probability and algebra, is followed by case studies that apply the methods to simple introductory physics lab experiments. More challenging topics, requiring calculus, are addressed in an advanced topics chapter. This self-contained and student-friendly introduction to chi-squared analysis and model testing includes a glossary, end-of-chapter problems with complete solutions, and software scripts written in several popular programming languages, that the reader can use for chi-squared model testing. In addition to introductory physics lab students, this accessible introduction to chi-squared analysis and model testing will be of interest to all who need to learn chi-squared model testing, e.g. beginning researchers in astrophysics and particle physics, beginners in data science, and lab students in other experimental sciences.