Notices · disclaimer
Disclaimer
The compendium is a work of exposition. It explains a settled body of mathematics, and it does nothing else. This page states that boundary without softening it.
What the material is
Every paper in the compendium is an explanation of ideas that belong to the mathematical study of chance, of the organisation of distributions, and of the behaviour of records through time. The papers are written for study and for citation. They are not written about any particular field, nor are they aimed at any practical question. Their subject is the mathematics, and the mathematics alone.
What the material is not
The compendium renders no advice and provides no service. It does not examine a reader's own situation, does not analyse a reader's data, and does not recommend any course of action. A reader who needs guidance about a real question should seek it from someone qualified for that particular question. The compendium is not that someone, and it would be a misuse of these pages to treat them as though it were.
No relationship is formed
Reading the compendium does not create any relationship between the reader and the desk beyond that of writer and reader. No duty of care arises from the act of reading, because nothing in the pages is directed at anyone's circumstances. This is a consequence of the compendium's nature, not a hedge added for its own sake.
Accuracy and its limits
The desk takes unusual care over the material, stating each claim at the level of generality the paper can support and announcing every rounding beside the figure it rounds. Even so, no statement here should be treated as a substitute for the formal literature, and a reader who needs an authoritative treatment of a specialised point should consult that literature directly. The compendium offers a clear path into the subject, not the last word upon it.
External references
The compendium deliberately contains no references to outside pages. Nothing on these pages points away from them, and nothing depends on a source that may change under it. A reader who wishes to go further will find the standard literature easily enough; the compendium's task is to make that literature approachable, not to replace it.
Errors and their correction
An error, if one is found, will be corrected when it is reported, and the correction will be described on the page concerned. The desk welcomes reports of errors and treats them as contributions rather than complaints. A reference that cannot be corrected cannot be trusted, and the desk intends this one to remain trustworthy for as long as it is kept.
How to read this page
Read the disclaimer as a companion to the material rather than a fence around it. It does not weaken any paper; it states the footing on which every paper stands. The mathematics in the compendium is offered as an explanation, and an explanation is a gift to the reader's understanding and nothing else. No sentence here asks a reader to act, and no sentence here can be taken as a direction about any real situation.
A reader who keeps that footing in view will find the compendium more useful, not less. The papers can be read quickly and without anxiety, because nothing in them carries a consequence beyond the study itself. When a paper says that an average settles under a condition, it is describing a mathematical fact and not advising anyone to rely on an average anywhere in particular.