Pilot edition, Spring 2027. This version of the book is being tested in a few sections and changes during the semester.

Unit 2: Simulate

How can one set of data tell us anything about a whole population, or about whether a treatment works? This unit answers with simulation. You’ll shuffle and resample real data thousands of times to see how much results vary by chance. You’ll do it first to test a claim (randomization tests), then to estimate a value (bootstrap confidence intervals).

The unit ends by showing that a bell-shaped curve, the normal model, describes what the simulations produced. That curve is the shortcut the rest of the book builds on.