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Statistics

This document provides an overview of key concepts in statistics. It discusses the two main types of statistics - descriptive statistics which organizes and summarizes data, and inferential statistics which makes estimations about a population based on a sample. It also defines important statistical terms like population, variables, levels of measurement from nominal to ratio, and different variable types like discrete and continuous.

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87 views

Statistics

This document provides an overview of key concepts in statistics. It discusses the two main types of statistics - descriptive statistics which organizes and summarizes data, and inferential statistics which makes estimations about a population based on a sample. It also defines important statistical terms like population, variables, levels of measurement from nominal to ratio, and different variable types like discrete and continuous.

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Pakistani Reaction
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Statistics

What Is Statistics?
The science of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing, and
interpreting data to assist in making more effective decisions
Types of Statistics
The study of statistics is usually divided into two categories:
descriptive statistics and inferential statistics
Descriptive Statistics
Methods of organizing, summarizing, and presenting data in an
informative way
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
The methods used to estimate a property of a population on the
basis of a sample
POPULATION
The entire set of individuals or objects of interest or the
measurements obtained from all individuals or objects of interest.
Example A sample of registered voters is necessary because of the
prohibitive cost of contacting millions of voters before an election
Types of Variables
There are two basic types of variables: (1) qualitative and (2)
quantitative
quantitative
When the variable studied can be reported numerically, the variable
is called a quantitative variable. Examples of quantitative variables
are the balance in your checking account, the ages of company
presidents, the life of an automobile battery (such as 42 months),
and the number of children in a family
qualitative
When the characteristic being studied is nonnumeric, it is called a
qualitative variable or an attribute. Examples of qualitative variables
are gender, religious affiliation, type of automobile owned, state of
birth, and eye color
Discrete variables
Discrete variables can assume only certain values, and there are
“gaps” between the values. Examples of discrete variables are the
number of bedrooms in a house (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
continuous variable
Observations of a continuous variable can assume any value within a
specific range. Examples of continuous variables are the air pressure
in a tire and the weight of a shipment of tomatoes
nominal level
the nominal level of measurement, observations of a qualitative
variable can only be classified and counted. There is no particular
order to the labels. The classification of the six colors of M&M’s milk
chocolate candies is an example of the nominal level of
measurement.
ordinal level.
The next higher level of data is the ordinal level. Table 1–1 lists the
student ratings of Professor James Brunner in an Introduction to
Finance course. This is an example of the ordinal scale because we
know the order or the ranks of the risk levels—that is, orange is
higher than yellow—but the amount of the difference in risk is not
necessarily the same. To put it another way, the difference in the risk
level between yellow and orange is not necessarily the same as
between green and blue
Interval-Level Data
The interval level of measurement is the next highest level. It
includes all the characteristics of the ordinal level, but in addition,
the difference between values is a constant size. An example of the
interval level of measurement is temperature. Suppose the high
temperatures on three consecutive winter days in Boston are 28, 31,
and 20 degrees Fahrenheit
Ratio-Level Data
Practically all quantitative data is recorded on the ratio level of
measurement. The ratio level is the “highest” level of measurement.
It has all the characteristics of the interval level, but in addition, the 0
point is meaningful and the ratio between two numbers is
meaningful. Examples of the ratio scale of measurement include
wages, units of production, weight, changes in stock prices, distance
between branch offices, and height. Money is a good illustration. If
you have zero dollars, then you have no money
Levels of Measurement
There are actually four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal,
interval, and ratio. The lowest, or the most primitive, measurement
is the nominal level. The highest, or the level that gives us the most
information about the observation, is the ratio level of measurement

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