chapter 9 Flashcards
Define statistical analysis
the application of mathematical techniques for collecting, organizing, describing and analyzing and interpreting numberical data to support decision making and research.
What is the term given to numerical data
Statitics
What is “population” or “data set” in terms of statistics?
a complete set of collected data- an array of all the values in a population.
some data sets are found in an indentificable distribution. what is this?
a data set with a specified set of characteristics.
A data distribution includes both data values and the probability of observing each value. what term is used for this
probability distribution.
What is a distribution function?
a smooth curve representing a data set.
- useful in representing large data.
What are the 3 important types of distributions?
- frequency distributions
- normal distributions
- nonnormal distributions
Define frequency distributions
a set of data organized to show the frequency of the occurrence of each possible outcome of a repeatable even observed many times.
- good for large data sets and in assigning probabilities.
What is a check sheet
a page divided into areas, one area for each sorting category.
- recorder marks observation data by marking marks in the appropriate category
- ie scantron sheets.
What is a bar chart?
a graphical display of a frequency distribution
Which charts represent the relative size of one catergory to the entire data distribution that belong to a each of a few different classifications?
pie charts and bar charts
What is a pie chart
presents data in the shape of a circle that has been divided into radial sections.
Which two charts/diagrams are traditionally included in the classic collection of seven basic quality tools?
Scatter diagrams and bar charts.
Define normal distribution
the most common form of probability distribution. It is a symmetrical distribution in which the number of values that are less than the mean, is the same number of values freater than thte mean.
- values considered discrete variables.
- useful in the branches of statistics related to sampling and forecasting.
What is a discrete variable?
variables that include a finite or limited, number of values.
- usually only has 1 value.
what are non-normal distributions?
asymmetrical distributions in which the number of values on one side of the mean is greateer than the number of values on the other side of the mean.
- usually has a tail, and peek further to one end fo the curve.
True or false
The variables in nonnormal distributions are generally random rather than discrete variables.
true
What is a random variable?
a variable whose values represent all possible outcomes.
Statistical measures provide information about two characteristics of data distributions: central tendency and dispersion. Define central tendency
representative values that describe the values in the middle of a set of observations. The main measures are: mean, median, mode
Statistical measures provide information about two characteristics of data distributions: central tendency and dispersion. define measures of dispersion
representative values that describe the distribution of data around specific central values.
- main measure of dispersion are: range, variance, and standard deviation.
What is descriptive statistics?
describe characteristics of a complete population of known values.
what is inferential statistics? AKA sampling statistics
characteristics of a known sample population in an effort to describe the complete population underlying the sample.
define population mean
Calculated by summing all the values in a iven population and then dividing by the total number of values in the population. Can be expressed as
= sum of values/number of values
What are some limitations of the mean?
- population values
2. outliar data
What is an outlier in terms of data?
an extreamly high or low value that is not representative of the other values in a given data population.
define the term median
the middle value of a set of values that is arranged in numerical order.
- used to describe economic characteristics of a dermographic group ie: median family income, median household size, or median education level.
What are the two steps to finding the median
- arrange the data values in numerical order
2. count the number of values in the data set. A data set contains either an odd or even number of values.
What is the diferrences in terms of median, between odd number and even number sets?
- odd number: median is the middle value
2. even number: median is calculated by taking the average of the two middle values.