Statistics Primer

Question 1

What is a population?

Answer 1

Every member with a selected characteristic

Question 2

What is a sample?

Answer 2

Subset of given sample which represents the population

Question 3

What graph is used to plot two continuous variables?

Answer 3

Scatter plot
Independent variable on the x axis
Dependent variable on the y-axis - what we measure

Question 4

What graph is used for then comparing two or more groups for a single measurement?

Answer 4

The box plot

Question 5

How can tables be modified so that you can see compare samples?

Answer 5

Can be cross-tabulated

Question 6

What are variables?

Answer 6

These are any parameters that can be measured

Question 7

What are variates?

Answer 7

This is a quantity which may take any of the values of a specified set with a specified relative frequency or probability

Question 8

What is qualitative data?

Answer 8

Nominal scale - categories (e.g. positive/negative)

Question 9

What is ranked data?

Answer 9

Ordinal scale - sequenced order ( they are relative to each other)

Question 10

What is quantitative data?

Answer 10

Numbers that produce a various scale

Question 11

What is discontinuous data?

Answer 11

Discrete scale - obtained by counting integers ( whole numbers)

Question 12

What is continuous data?

Answer 12

Obtained by measuring - there can be decimal places

Question 13

What is derived data?

Answer 13

Calculated from direct measurements - ratios, percentages etc.

Question 14

Nominal and Ordinal Example:

Answer 14

This should be named and have directionality
Statement: I m excited to be learning about statistics
Answer options: strongly agree, disagree, neither/nor agree, agree, strongly agree

Question 15

Discontinuous quantitative example:

Answer 15

Number of carbon atoms in molecule - integer and numerical

Question 16

Continuous quantitative example

Answer 16

Mass of chemical compound, weighed on a balance
Absorbance, measured using a spectrophotometer

Question 17

Grey areas

Answer 17

Shoe size - ranked data?
Age of students - can be discontinuous if only taken in years ( integers) or can be continuous if time/days/months are taken into consideration

Question 18

Define accuracy

Answer 18

The closeness of measurements to true value

Question 19

Define precision

Answer 19

Closeness of measurements to true value

Question 20

What is bias?

Answer 20

This is the deviation of measured values from the true value - systematic/consistent

Question 21

What is variability?

Answer 21

This is imprecision in repeated measurements

Question 22

What is range?

Answer 22

The difference between the largest and smallest values
Problem - don’t know about the values within the range - number or values of them