New and updated features Important Things to Learn First: this chapter has been developed for distribution online even before a first class meeting. Instructors teaching online or hybrid course sections may find this to be a particularly valuable tool to get students thinking about business statistics and learning the necessary foundational concepts. Getting Ready to Analyze Data in the Future: this newly expanded version of Chapter 17 adds a second Using Statistics scenario that serves as an introduction to business analytics methods. That introduction, in turn, explains several advanced Excel features while familiarizing students with the fundamental concepts and vocabulary of business analytics. As such, the chapter provides students with a path for further growth and greater awareness about applying business statistics and analytics in their other courses and their business careers. Expanded Excel Coverage Worksheet instructions replace the In-Depth Excel instructions in the Excel Guides and discuss more fully OS X Excel ("Excel for Mac") differences when they occur. Because the many current versions of Excel have varying capabilities, Appendix B begins by sorting through the possible confusion to ensure that students understand that not all Excel version, are alike. In the Worksheet Notes help explain the worksheet illustrations that in-chapter examples use as model solutions. Many more Exhibits, stand-alone summaries of important procedures that serve as a review of chapter passages.   Content Updates The new First Things First Chapter replaces the seventh edition’s Let’s Get Started Chapter, keeping that chapter’s strength while immediately drawing readers into the changing face of statistics and business analytics with a new opening Using Statistics scenario. And like the previous edition’s opening chapter, Pearson Education openly posts this chapter so students can get started learning business statistics even before they obtain their textbooks. Chapter 1 builds on the opening chapter with a new Using Statistics scenario that offers a cautionary tale about the importance of defining and collecting data. Rewritten Sections 1.1 (“Defining Variables”) and 1.2 (“Collecting Data”) use lessons from the scenario to underscore important points. Over one-third of the problems in this chapter are new or updated. Chapter 2 features several new or updated data sets, including a new data sample of 407 retirement funds that illustrate a number of descriptive methods. The chapter now discusses doughnut charts and sparklines and contains a reorganized section on organizing and visualizing a mix of variables. Section 2.7 (“The Challenge in Organizing and Visualizing Variables”) expands on previous editions’ discussions that focused solely on visualization issues. This chapter uses an updated Clear Mountain State student survey as well. Over half of the problems in this chapter are new or updated. Chapter 3 also uses the new retirement funds sample of 407 mutual funds and uses new or updated data sets for almost all examples that the chapter presents. Updated data sets include the restaurant meal cost samples and the NBA values data. This chapter also uses an updated Clear Mountain State student survey. Just under one-half of the problems in this chapter are new or updated. Chapter 4 uses an updated Using Statistics scenario while preserving the best features of this chapter. The chapter now starts a section on Bayes’ theorem which completes as an online section, and 43% of the problems in the chapter are new or updated. Chapter 5 has been streamlined with the sections “Covariance of a Probability Distribution and Its Application in Finance” and “Hyp