A Primer for Sampling Solids, Liquids, and Gases by Patricia L. Smith

How does a marble manufacturer know that the color will be consistent throughout the products being made? How can you tell if liquid at the bottom of a container is the same consistency as at the top? How does a pellet manufacturer know if the pellets are consistently the same size? How does a chemical manufacturer know if the percent purity in a sample is representative of the whole batch? These and similar questions are answered in A Primer for Sampling Solids, Liquids, and Gases: Based on the Seven Sampling Errors of Pierre Gy.

Statisticians are well trained in sampling techniques if the sample is well defined. Examples of such samples include industrial parts in manufacturing, invoices in business processes, and people in surveys. However, what if the sampling unit isn't well defined? What if you are sampling bulk material such as a pile of coal? Author Patricia L. Smith illustrates what to look for in sampling devices and procedures to obtain correct samples from bulk materials. She gives sampling guidelines that can be applied immediately and shows how to analyze protocols to uncover sampling problems.

Smith presents the ideas of Pierre Gy in lay terms so that his concepts and principles can be easily grasped and applied. She conveys Gy's intuitive meaning while preserving his original ideas. Synonyms have been used for some technical terms to avoid confusion.