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Lecture 2

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20 views6 pages

Lecture 2

Uploaded by

ma2054738
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Describing data

 Introduction
The goal of this chapter is to describe the characteristics of the
sample in an accurate way that the information will be easily
communicated to others.

Describing data

Numerically Graphically Tabulated


Measures of
Center
Measures of
Variation
Measures of
Skewness

Describing the data can be done in three ways:


1. Tabulated (frequency distribution)
2. Graphically
3. Numerically.

 Tabulated (Frequency Distributions)


When dealing with large sets of data, a good overall picture
can be often conveyed by grouping the data into number of
classes.

1
The construction of frequency distributions consists of three
steps, particularly for quantitative data:
1. Choosing the classes (intervals, or categories for
qualitative data)
2. Tally the data into these classes
3. Count the number of items in each class.
Note: The first step is the most important step. Designing too
few classes would obscure the information in the distribution
while, on the other hand, designating too many classes would
confuse the reader. The number of classes, k, will have the
following range of values: 5 < k < 20 as its limits.

Qualitative variables:
Example:
25 patient were selected to determine their blood type.
Raw Data: A,B,B,AB,O, O,O,B,AB,B ,B,B,O,A,O
A,O,O,O,AB, AB,A,O,B,A
Construct a frequency distribution for the data.
Solution:
CLASS Tally Frequency
A IIII 5
B IIII II 7

O IIII IIII 9

2
AB IIII 4
Total 25

Frequency distribution table:


CLASS Frequency
A 5
B 7

O 9
AB 4
Total 25

Example:
Twenty students were asked to rate the quality of their
accommodations as being excellent, above average, average,
below average, or poor. Their answers are shown below:
Below Average - Average - Above Average - Above Average
- Above Average - Above Average - Above Average - Below
Average - Below Average – Average – Poor - Above Average –
Excellent -Above Average – Average - Above Average –
Average - Above Average – Average – Poor
Required:
Construct the frequency distribution table.
Solution:

Grade tally Freq.


Poor // 2
Below Average /// 3
Average //// 5
Above Average //// //// 9
Excellent / 1
3
Grade Freq
Poor 2
Below Average 3
Average 5
Above Average 9
Excellent 1

Quantitative variables:
Steps for constructing frequency distribution table:
 Calculate the range of the data:
Range = max – min.
 Calculate the number of classes (k)
Generally, there are some formulas for determining the optimal
number of classes like the following:
k  1  3.3 log n
or
k n

Where:
k number of classes
n the sample size

 Calculate the class width (w) by w = R/k,

4
Range
W
N .Classes
 Determine the limits for each class
 Make a tally for the classes by going over the data once.
 Delete the tally column to obtain the frequency distribution
table

Example:
The following are the grades of 50 students in a statistics class:

75 89 66 52 90 68 83 94 77 60
38 47 87 65 99 49 65 70 73
77 81
85 77 83 56 63 79 69 82 84
77 70
62 75 21 88 74 37 81 76 74 63
69 73 91 87 76 58 63 60 71 82

Construct a frequency distribution


Solution:
The range: R = max – min.
R=99-21=78
The number of classes, k,
k  1  3.3 log n
k  1  3.3 log 50
k  1  3.3 1.69
k  1  5.6  6.6  8
Calculate the class width, w, by w = R/k,
R 78
W   9.75  10
k 8
5
Class Tally Frequency
20 - I 1
30 - II 2
40- II 2
50- III 3
60- IIII IIII II 12
70- IIII IIII IIII 14
80- IIII IIII II 12

90-100 IIII 4

Total 50

So, the frequency distribution can be written as follow:


Class Frequency
20 - 1
30 - 2
40- 2
50- 3
60- 12
70- 14
80- 12
90-100 4
Total 50

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