1.1 Stuff

Data consist of information coming from observations, counts, measurements, or responses.

Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data in order to make decisions.

1.1 Stuff

The study of statistics has two major branches:

Descriptive statistics is the branch of statistics that involves the organization, summarization, and display of data.

Inferential statistics is the branch of statistics that involves using a sample to draw conclusions about a population.

1.1 Try It Yourself 3

A survey conducted among 1,017 men and women by Opinion Research Corporation International found that 76% of the women and 60% of the men had had a physical examination within the previous year.

1.1 Stuff

There are two types of data sets used in statistics:

a population is the collection of all outcomes, responses, measurements, or counts that are of interest.

a sample is a subset, or part, of a population.

1.1 Population or Sample?

The height of each player on a school’s basketball team (#11)

A survey of 500 spectators from a stadium with 42,000 spectators (#13)

The number of televisions in each U.S. household (#16)

1.1 Exercise #30

A survey of 496 students at a college found that 10% planned on traveling out of the country during spring break.

1.1 Stuff

A parameter is a numerical description of a population characteristic.

A statistic is a numerical description of a sample characteristic.

1.1 Parameter or Statistic?

Is the numerical value a parameter or statistic?

The average annual salary for 35 of a company’s 1200 accountants is $68,000. (#35)

In a recent year, the average math scores for all graduates on the ACT was 21.0. (#42)