Term
| why is statistics important? |
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Definition
| we encounter it everyday, we must understand so we don't make uninformed decisions and costly mistakes. Gives us the tools to differentiate between sound statistical conclusions and questionable ones drawn from bad data |
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Term
| define the study of statistics |
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Definition
| the methodology of extracting useful information from a data set |
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Term
| what are the three essential steps for doing good statistics? |
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Definition
find the right data (which is complete and lacking any misrepresentation)
use appropriate statistical tools, depending on the data at hand
clearly communicate numerical information into written language |
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Term
| generally, what are the two branches of the study of statistics? |
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Definition
| descriptive statistics and inferential statistics |
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Term
| define descriptive statistics |
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Definition
| summarizing important aspects of data sets (charts, tables, typical values, variability.. i.e. batting average, divorce rates) |
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Term
| what is the main growth in the field of statistics? |
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Definition
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Term
| what is inferential statistics? |
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Definition
| drawing conclusions about a large data set |
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Term
| what is a large data set called? |
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Definition
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Term
| what is a population based on? |
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Definition
| a sample set or set of sample data |
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Term
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Definition
| all members of a specific group (not necessarily people) |
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Term
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Definition
| a subset of that particular population |
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Term
| what is a sample statistic |
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Definition
| the results of the sample |
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Term
| what is a population parameter? |
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Definition
| usually an estimate of a total (like all of the population, which is hard to find since it is costly and impractical) the amount of the whole |
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Term
| what are the two main reasons we are unable to use population data? |
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Definition
| expensive, impossible to examine every member of a population |
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Term
| sample data is usually collected in what two ways? |
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Definition
| cross-sectional data and time series data |
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Term
| define cross-sectional data |
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Definition
| data collected by recording a characteristic of many subjects (like salary of graduates or price of gas in different states) could be at same point in time or approximately same time |
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Term
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Definition
| recording a characteristic of a subject over several time periods (i.e. day week, month, year) like monthly sales of cars or daily price of stock for an entire quarter |
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Term
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Definition
| general characteristic of a set of people, objects, or events where each observation varies in kind or degree |
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Term
| define qualitative variable |
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Definition
| label or name used to categorize the distinguishing characteristics (i.e. gender, race, profession, type of business) |
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Term
| define quantitative variable |
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Definition
| has meaningful numerical values (i.e. height, temperature, age, weight) |
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Term
| what two types of quantitative variables are there? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| value that can be counted like points in a basketball game (90) or a stock price 20.50 |
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Term
| define continuous variable |
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Definition
| uncountable values within a certain interval (i.e. weight between 100 and 101 so 101.12345 etc) however continuous variable may be counted in discreet terms like a weight of a baby (continuous) but we say 6 lbs 10 ounces |
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Term
| what are the four major measurement scales? |
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Definition
| nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scale |
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Term
| what two measurement scales use qualitative variables? |
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Definition
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Term
| what two measurements use quantitative variables? |
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Definition
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Term
| what is the nominal scale? |
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Definition
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