Statistics

The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities,
especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative

sample.
A type of mathematical analysis involving the use of quantified representations, models and
summaries for a given set of empirical data or real world observations. Statistical analysis
involves the process of collecting and analyzing data and then summarizing the data into a
numerical form.
DIFFERENT USES OF STATISTICS

(1) Statistics helps in providing a better understanding and exact description of a phenomenon of
nature.
(2) Statistical helps in proper and efficient planning of a statistical inquiry in any field of study.
(3) Statistical helps in collecting an appropriate quantitative data.
(4) Statistics helps in presenting complex data in a suitable tabular, diagrammatic and graphic form
for an easy and clear comprehension of the data.
(5) Statistics helps in understanding the nature and pattern of variability of a phenomenon
through quantitative obersevations.
(6) Statistics helps in drawing valid inference, along with a measure of their reliability about the
population parameters from the sample data.

2 BRANCHES OF STATISTICS
Descriptive Statistics
CONCEPT The branch of statistics that focuses on collecting, summarizing, and presenting a set of
data.
EXAMPLES The average age of citizens who voted for the winning candidate in the last presidential
election, the average length of all books about statistics, the variation in the weight of 100 boxes of
cereal selected from a factory's production line.
INTERPRETATION You are most likely to be familiar with this branch of statistics, because many
examples arise in everyday life. Descriptive statistics forms the basis for analysis and discussion in
such diverse fields as securities trading, the social sciences, government, the health sciences, and
professional sports. A general familiarity and widespread availability of descriptive methods in many
calculating devices and business software can often make using this branch of statistics seem
deceptively easy. (Chapters 2 and 3 warn you of the common pitfalls of using descriptive methods.)
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics is the type of statistics that probably springs to most peoples minds when they
hear the word statistics. Here the goal is to describe.
Numerical measures are used to tell about features of a set of data. There are a number of items that
belong in this portion of statistics, such as:

The average, or measure of center, consisting of the mean, median, mode or midrange.
The spread of a data set, which can be measured with the range or standard deviation.
Overall descriptions of data such as the five number summary.
Other measurements such as skewness and kurtosis.
The exploration of relationships and correlation between paired data.
The presentation of statistical results in graphical form

Inferential Statistics
CONCEPT The branch of statistics that analyzes sample data to draw conclusions about a
population.
EXAMPLE A survey that sampled 2,001 full-or part-time workers ages 50 to 70, conducted by the
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), discovered that 70% of those polled planned to
work past the traditional mid-60s retirement age. By using methods discussed in Section 6.4, this
statistic could be used to draw conclusions about the population of all workers ages 50 to 70.
INTERPRETATION When you use inferential statistics, you start with a hypothesis and look to see
whether the data are consistent with that hypothesis. Inferential statistical methods can be easily
misapplied or misconstrued, and many inferential methods require the use of a calculator or
computer. (A full explanation of common inferential methods appears in Chapters 6 through 9.)
The population is the entire collection of individuals that we are interested in studying. It is
typically impossible or infeasible to examine each member of the population individually. So we
choose a representative subset of the population, called a sample.
Inferential statistics studies a statistical sample, and from this analysis is able to say something about
the population from which the sample came.
There are two major divisions of inferential statistics:

A confidence interval gives a range of values for an unknown parameter of the population by
measuring a statistical sample. This is expressed in terms of an interval and the degree of confidence
that the parameter is within the interval.
Tests of significance or hypothesis testing tests a claim about the population by analyzing a
statistical sample. By design there is some uncertainty in this process. This can be expressed in
terms of a level of significance

DIFFERENTIATE OF 2 BRANCHES
Although this is helpful in learning things such as the spread and center of the data we are studying,
nothing in the area of descriptive statistics can be used to make any sort of generalization. In
descriptive statistics measurements such as the mean and standard deviation are stated as
exact numbers. Though we may use descriptive statistics all we would like in examining a
statistical sample, this branch of statistics does not allow us to say anything about the
population.
Inferential statistics is different from descriptive statistics in many ways. Even though there are similar
calculations, such as those for the mean and standard deviation, the focus is different for inferential
statistics. Inferential statistics does start with a sample and then generalizes to a population. This
information about a population is not stated as a number. Instead we express these parameters as a
range of potential numbers, along with a degree of confidence.
It is important to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics. This knowledge is
helpful when we need to apply it to a real world situation involving statistical methods.

WHAT ARE TWO GENERAL TYPES OF DATA?

1. QUANTITATIVE DATA-data are measures of values or counts and are expressed as
numbers.
Quantitative data are data about numeric variables (e.g. how many; how much; or how
often).
QUANTITY
2. QUALITATIVE DATA-data are measures of 'types' and may be represented by a name,
symbol, or a number code.
Qualitative data are data about categorical variables (e.g. what type).
QUALITY

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT/NATURE OF STATISTICAL DATA?

Nominal Level of Measurement

The nominal level of measurement is the lowest of the four ways to characterize data. Nominal
means "in name only" and that should help to remember what this level is all about. Nominal data
deals with names, categories, or labels.
Data at the nominal level is qualitative. Colors of eyes, yes or no responses to a survey, and favorite
breakfast cereal all deal with the nominal level of measurement. Even some things with numbers
associated with them, such as a number on the back of a football jersey, are nominal since it is used
to "name" an individual player on the field.
Data at this level can't be ordered in a meaningful way, and it makes no sense to calculate things
such as means and standard deviations.
Ordinal Level of Measurement
The next level is called the ordinal level of measurement. Data at this level can be ordered, but no
differences between the data can be taken that are meaningful.
Here you should think of things like a list of the top ten cities to live.
The data, here ten cities, are ranked from one to ten, but differences between the cities don't make
much sense. There's no way from looking at just the rankings to know how much better life is in city
number 1 than city number 2.
Another example of this are letter grades. You can order things so that A is higher than a B, but
without any other information, there is no way of knowing how much better an A is from a B.
As with the nominal level, data at the ordinal level should not be used in calculations.
Interval Level of Measurement
The interval level of measurement deals with data that can be ordered, and in which differences
between the data does make sense.
Data at this level does not have a starting point.
The Fahrenheit and Celsius scales of temperatures are both examples of data at the interval level of
measurement. You can talk about 30 degrees being 60 degrees less than 90 degrees, so differences
do make sense. However 0 degrees (in both scales) cold as it may be does not represent the total
absence of temperature.
Data at the interval level can be used in calculations. However, data at this level does lack one type of
comparison. Even though 3 x 30 = 90, it is not correct to say that 90 degrees Celsius is three times as
hot as 30 degrees Celsius.
Ratio Level of Measurement
The fourth and highest level of measurement is the ratio level. Data at the ratio level possess all of
the features of the interval level, in addition to a zero value. Due to the presence of a zero, it now
makes sense to compare the ratios of measurements. Phrases such as "four times" and "twice" are
meaningful at the ratio level.

Distances, in any system of measurement give us data at the ratio level. A measurement such as 0
feet does make sense, as it represents no length. Furthermore 2 feet is twice as long as 1 foot. So
ratios can be formed between the data.
At the ratio level of measurement, not only can sums and differences be calculated, but also ratios.
One measurement can be divided by any nonzero measurement, and a meaningful number will
result.