L05 - Critical Thinking About Numbers

Question 1

Cardinal Numbers

Answer 1

Numbers used to express quantity (i.e. one, two, three …).

Question 2

Correlation

Answer 2

Factors that can be seen to occur together, yet between which no causal relationship has been established; two phenomena or variables that co-vary in predictable ways across different circumstances.

Question 3

Fallacy of Linear Projection

Answer 3

To commit this fallacy is to suppose that the rate observed over a given range can be applied to another unobserved range.

Question 4

Mean

Answer 4

An arithmetically calculated average, representing the sum of the values of a sample divided by the number of elements in that sample.

Question 5

Median

Answer 5

The element in the sample having the following property: half of the remaining elements have a greater value and half have a lesser value. (When there is an even number of elements (hence no single central value), the median is usually taken to be the mean of the two central ones.)

Question 6

Mode

Answer 6

The most frequently occurring value.

Question 7

Ordinal Numbers

Answer 7

Numbers used to show the order of sequence (i.e. first, second, third, …).

Question 8

Percentage

Answer 8

Rate per hundred; x number out of one hundred.

Question 9

Percentile

Answer 9

A term used to numerically rank values by how they compare to other values.

Question 10

Representative Number

Answer 10

A number used as a representation of a state of affairs, which purports to capture a feature of that state of affairs.