Lesson 1 Introduction and Definition

Introduction:
Definition of Statistics, Notations and

Symbols
Definition of Statistics
• Latin word ‘status’ meaning ‘state’
• PLURAL SENSE – any set of numerical data (e.g. vital

statistics, monthly sales)
• SINGULAR SENSE – branch of science that deals with the

collection, presentation, analysis and interpretation of data
A Career in Statistics: Beyond the Numbers by
Gerald Hahn and Necip Doganaksoy:
• The science of learning from (or making sense out of) data
• The theory and methods of extracting information from
observational data for solving real-world problems
• The science of uncertainty
• The art of telling a story with [numerical] data
Governments, political parties, civil servants, financial companies,

opinion-polling firms, social researchers, news organizations, and so
much more.
What Fields Employ Statisticians?
▪ Agriculture ▪ Finance ▪ Physics
▪ Animal Population ▪ Forestry ▪ Political Science
▪ Astronomy ▪ Genetics ▪ Psychology
▪ Biology ▪ Government ▪ Public Health
▪ Census ▪ Health Science ▪ Safety
▪ Chemistry ▪ Insurance ▪ Science Writing and Journalism
▪ Computer Science ▪ Law ▪ Sociology
▪ Demography ▪ Manufacturing ▪ Sports
▪ Ecology ▪ Marketing ▪ Survey Methods
▪ Economics ▪ Medical Clinical Trials ▪ Telecommunications
▪ Education ▪ Medicine ▪ Transportation
▪ Engineering ▪ National Defense ▪ Zoology
▪ Epidemiology ▪ Pharmacology
In a typical day, a statistician will:
• Use data to solve problems in a wide variety of fields
• Apply mathematical and statistical knowledge to social,
economic, medical, political, and ecological problems
• Work individually and/or as part of an interdisciplinary team
• Travel to consult with other professionals or attend conferences,
seminars, and continuing education activities
• Advance the frontiers of statistics, mathematics, and probability
through education and research
How much Math do you need?
• Can you add, subtract, multiply, and divide with the help of a
calculator?
• Statistics is not really about Math
• It is based on decision-making processes, so conceptual
understanding is needed.
• Most of the statistical procedures presented in this course can
also be performed through statistical software like SAS, SPSS,
Minitab, etc.
Statistics in Practice
• Workers in private sectors in Central Luzon will soon get a P14 raise
in their salary. (June 9, 2011, Manila Bulletin)
• Export earnings in April 2011 amounted to $4.300 billion, a 19.1
percent increment from $3.612 billion recorded in April of 2010.
(http://www.census.gov.ph/)
• The Producer Price Index (PPI, 2000=100) for the manufacturing
sector went up to 1.6 percent in April 2011 after recording declines in
15 months since January 2010, according to the preliminary results of
the monthly Producer Price Survey. (http://www.census.gov.ph/)
General Uses of Statistics
• Aids in decision-making
- provides comparison
- explains actions that has taken place
- justifies a claim or assertion
- predicts future outcome
- estimates unknown quantities
• Summarizes data for public use
Areas of Statistics
1. Descriptive Statistics
• Statistics used to describe the characteristics of a distribution of scores. They
apply only to the members of a sample or population from which data have been
collected.
• Generalizability to the population is not the objective of descriptive statistics
2. Inferential Statistics
• derived from sample data that are used to make inferences about the population
from which the sample was drawn.
• Generalizability is important in this type of statistic because it is the ability to use
the results of data collected from a sample to reach conclusions about the
characteristics of the population.
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
• A student wants to find his average • A student wants to estimate his
score on his 3 exams chance of passing the subject based
on his average score.
• A housewife wants to determine • A housewife would like to predict

the average weekly expenditure of based on last year’s weekly
the household expenditures, the average weekly
expenditure she will spend on
groceries for this year.
• A politician wants to know the • A politician would like to estimate,

exact number of votes he received based on an opinion poll, his
in the last election chance of winning of an election
Basic Terms in Statistics
Population
• The totality of elements under a statistical study (e.g., “All living adult
males in the United States”)
• Any value generated from or applied to the population is a parameter - a
numerical characteristic of the population.
Census – collecting information to all units of the population
Example: In order to find the average salary of all EDUC students who
graduated from college in 2004, collect information about the salaries of all
the 2004 EDUC graduates and derive an average from that data.
Sample
• A subset of the population
• Any value derived from the sample, such as the mean, is a statistic - a
numerical characteristic of the sample.
• Survey Sampling – studying a subset of population
Example: In order to find the average salary of EDUC courses who

graduated from college in 2004, you select (randomly or non-randomly)
some of these graduates and compute their mean (average) salary.
• Data
- facts or figures from which conclusions may be drawn
• Data Set
- collection of facts and figures
• Variable
- a characteristic or attribute of persons or objects which can assume
different values or labels under statistical study
Examples: income, gender, age, height, attitudes about school, score on a
measure of depression, etc.
• Measurement
- process of determining the value or label of a particular variable for a
particular experimental unit
Types of Variables
1. Quantitative Variable
- outcomes of the variables are expressed numerically that are
meaningful or indicate some sort of amount
- examples are age, allowance, number of classrooms, weight,
height, etc.
2. Qualitative Variable
- outcomes of the variables are expressed non-numerically or
categorically
- examples are gender, religion, cellphone number, eye color,
marital status, etc.
Kinds of Quantitative Variable
1. Discrete Variable
- a variable which can assume finite, or at most , countably infinite number of
values
- usually measured by counting or enumeration
- answers the question “how many”
- examples are number of students, number of children, no. of subjects taken, etc
2. Continuous Variable
- a variable which can assume infinitely many values corresponding to a line
interval
- gives rise to measurement
- answers the question “how much”
- examples are weight, allowance, height, etc
Scales/Levels of Measurement for Variables
1. Nominal
- classificatory scale
- weakest level of measurement where numbers or symbols are used simply for categorizing
subjects into different groups
-examples are gender (1-male, 2-female) , hair color (1-brown, 2-black, 3–blue, 4-others)
2. Ordinal
- ranking scale
- numbers assigned to categories of any variable may be ranked or ordered in some low-to-high
manner
- limitation: differences between rankings may appear equal when in reality it is known that they
are not
-examples are athletes rankings (1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place), teaching ratings
(excellent, very satisfactory, satisfactory, fair, poor), shirt size (small, medium, large)
Scales/Levels of Measurement for Variables
3. Interval
- has the properties of the nominal and ordinal levels, and in addition, the distances
between any two numbers on the scale are of known sizes
- examples are IQ scores, GPA, temperature
4. Ratio
- highest level of measurement
- contains the properties of nominal, ordinal and interval, and in addition, it has a ‘true
zero’ point
- in economics or business, an income variable could be measured on a ratio scale
because it makes sense to talk of ‘zero’ income, while it makes no sense to talk about
‘zero’ intelligence
- examples are age, height, weight, number of books
Rounding Numbers
General Rule:
- if the number to be dropped is 5 or greater, then the
remaining number is rounded up
- if the number to be dropped is less than 5, then leave the
remaining number unchanged
10.977 would round to 11.0
Important Notation in Statistics:
Summation Notation
Rules on Summation Notation
1. The summation of the sum of variables is the sum of their
summations.
2. If c is a constant, then
3. If c is a constant, then
Expansion and Evaluation
Using the table below, expand and evaluate the following
summation notation.
i 1 2 3 4 5
Xi 2 1 2 -1 -4
Yi 3 -1 -2 3 2
1. 2. 3.
Expression
Express the following in summation notation.
1.
2.
3.
ASSIGNMENT
Scan your daily newspaper or weekly news magazine or search the Internet for one article
that contain numerical data. The data might be a summary of the results of a vote for
senators, or a list of crime rates, birth or death rates, etc. For the article found, answer the
following questions:
1. Do the data constitute a sample or an entire population? Why or why not? If a
sample has been taken, clearly identify both the sample and the population;
otherwise, identify the population.
2. What type of data has been collected?
3. What is the data source?
4. If a sample has been observed, is it likely to be representative of the population?
5. If a sample has been observed, does the article present an explicit (implied)
inference about the population of interest? If so, state the inference made in the
article.

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Introduction:

Definition of Statistics, Notations and

• PLURAL SENSE – any set of numerical data (e.g. vital

• SINGULAR SENSE – branch of science that deals with the

Governments, political parties, civil servants, financial companies,

• A housewife wants to determine • A housewife would like to predict

• A politician wants to know the • A politician would like to estimate,

Example: In order to find the average salary of EDUC courses who

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