1.1
What is the Science of Statistics (The word "Statistics" has several meanings)
- Key Idea 1: To the average person, statistics are merely numerical information (often called data) about aspects of the world around us...
Discussion The word comes from state; originally, statistics meant such numerical descriptions of the affairs of state, that is, of government.
- Key Idea 2: "Statistic..." in the singular...
Discussion One piece of data or a single number computed from data (like the average temperature on July 23, 1998, in 20 cities) that somehow informs us about the unknown world around us is called by statisticians and lay people alike a statistic.
Illustrations
- Key Idea 3: "Statistics" as a scientific discipline...
Discussion As a scientific discipline, “statistics” is the science of gathering and describing data and the subsequent drawing of conclusions (inferences) from data.
- Key Idea 4: Examples – extracting information from tabulated data, without applying sophisticated statistical methods...
- Summary...
Discussion
- The techniques of describing data in ways easy to capture the essence of the information in the data are often called descriptive statistics.
- The techniques used to draw conclusions from data are often called inferential statistics.
- Good inferential statistics often occurs because it was preceded by a good descriptive statistical analysis of a data set.