What Is Statistic 1. statistics is a study dealing with the process of collecting, organizing, summarizing, analyzing and presenting information.

( COSAP) 2. Population - Refers to all units within the scope of a study. 3. Sample - Refers to a portion taken from the entire population under study. 4. Descriptive statistics - Methods of organizing, summarizing and presenting data in a convenient and informative way suchas using grphical techniques. Descriptive statistcs are designed to describe, without going any further, that is without attempting to infer anything that goes beyond the data, themsleves. very similar to the saying " what you see what you get " 5. Inferential statistics - Methods used to draw conclusions or inferences about characteristic of population based on sample data Data And Measurement 1. Sources Of Data i). Primary data are data that are initially gathered by the researcher. ii).Secondary data are those that are gathered from other sources other than the researcher. Table 2.1 Comparing Advantages of Primary Vs Secondary Data Primary Data Secondary data In many cases the data needed by decision makers are simply not Data gathered from primary sources are very costly, available from other sources, and so there is no alternative but to gether time consuming and requires a lot of man power them. Secondary sources may introduce reproduction errors, so it better to Data help you decide what further researcer needs to use primary sources be done Data gathered are more accurate. Table 2.2 Comparing Disadvantages of Primary Vs Secondary Data Primary Data Secondary Data inconvenient (require more time, effort and money transcription error (reproduction error) may not meet our specific needs not all secondary data is readily available or inexpensive accuracy of the data is questionable

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

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Quantitative originates from the word "quantity ", any data that comes in terms of numbers. Quantitative variable can further be classified as either continuous or discrete.continuous means there is an element of continuity. As a standard rule, a continuous variable is one with an unlimited number of values that may be measured. Discrete variables have limited number of values that are collected by counting. Examples are number of children, total income, annual sales, etc. Shoe size which comes in the form 5, 5 1/ 2 , 6, 6 1 /2 , etc. is considered as a discrete variable.

3. Qualitative variables are measured according to their specific categories. For example, gender is measured as male or female. Marital status is measured as single or married, opinion is measured as strongly disagree, disagree, neutral,agree or strongly agree and so on. 4. Nominal or categorical data.data of this nature has a limited number of statistical techniques that can be applied. With nominal data, the order of the selection of answers is of no importance. You can arrange the categories in any manner. 5. Ordinal or rank data.the numbers that are assigned to each category of answer carry specific meanings. It enables us to evaluate if an object has more or less of a characteristic than some other object. Hence, to summarize, ordinal data has the categorical characteristic as well as essence of order. 6. Interval data is categorical, has sequence and we know whether an object has more or less of a characteristic than some other object and by how much more or how much less. Another important characteristic of interval data is the existence of an arbitrary zero point. Capability is something very subjective and cannot be quantified. 7. Ratio, The ratio data consists of all the characteristics discussed above plus another characteristic of absolute zero point. With this absolute zero point characteristic, we are able to conclude that a person is twice as heavy or twice as tall as his partner. Ratio data is flexible; meaning all descriptive and inferential techniques are applicable.