MATH 1070 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-2: Simple Random Sample, Confounding, Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, summarizing, and analyzing information to draw conclusions or answer questions. The entire group to be studied is called the population. An individual is a person or object that is a member of the population. A sample is a subset of the population being studied. A statistic is a numerical summary of a sample. Descriptive statistics consist of organizing and summarizing data. Descriptive statistics describe data through numerical summaries, tables, and graphs. Inferential statistics uses methods that take a result from a sample, extend it to the population, and measure the reliability of the result. A parameter is a numerical summary of a population. Variables are the characteristics of the individuals within the population. Qualitative, or categorical, variables allow for classification of individuals based on some attribute or characteristic. Quantitative variables provide numerical measures of individuals. The values of a quantitative variable can be added or subtracted and provide meaningful results.
