Statistics matters in interpretations of non-traditional stable isotopic data  

作　　者：Chun-Hui Li 

机构地区：[1]CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments,School of Earth and Space Sciences,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026,Anhui,China [2]CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology,Hefei 230026,Anhui,China

出　　处：《Acta Geochimica》2020年第2期271-279,共9页地球化学学报（英文）

基　　金：financially supported by NSFC No.41703019。

摘　　要：Increasing volumes of of non-traditional stable isotope data have brought new opportunities to gain important insights into geochemical and planetary processes.However,there is a worrysome trend that the isotopic data are interpreted in a fashion that its statistical approaches are chosen subjectively.This communication summarizes the rules regarding calculating the mean,standard deviation and relative standard deviation of a population,as well as error propagation and significant digits.These rules should be used when reporting geochemical data,especially for isotope ratios.Using two examples,I show that statistics matters in isotopic data interpretation.

关 键 词：ISOTOPIC DATA processing Error propagation SIGNIFICANT DIGITS Difference between means with uncertainties 

分 类 号：P597[天文地球—地球化学]