Summer Vocab

Question 1

individuals

Answer 1

the objects described by a set of data; may be people, animals, or things

Question 2

variable

Answer 2

any characteristic of an individual; can take different values for different individuals

Question 3

categorical variable

Answer 3

places an individual into one of several groups or categories

Question 4

quantitative variable

Answer 4

takes numerical values for which it makes sense to find an average

Question 5

distribution

Answer 5

the distribution of a variable tells us what values the variable takes and how often it takes these values

Question 6

marginal distribution

Answer 6

the marginal distribution of one of the categorical variables in a two-way table of counts is the distribution of values of that variable among all individuals described by the table

Question 7

conditional distribution

Answer 7

a conditional distribution of a variable describes the values of that variable among individuals who have a specific value of another variable. there is a separate conditional distribution for each value of the other variable

Question 8

association

Answer 8

there is an association between two variables if knowing the value of one variable helps predict the value of the other

Question 9

outlier

Answer 9

an individual value that falls outside the overall pattern

Question 10

mode

Answer 10

the most common value

Question 11

center

Answer 11

the midpoint of a graph

Question 12

symmetric

Answer 12

distribution is symmetric if the right and left sides of graph are approximately mirror images

Question 13

skewed right

Answer 13

distribution is skewed right if the right side of the graph is much longer than the left side

Question 14

skewed left

Answer 14

if the left side of the graph is much longer than the right side

Question 15

unimodal

Answer 15

a graph with a single peak

Question 16

bimodal

Answer 16

graph has two clear peaks

Question 17

multimodal

Answer 17

graph with more than two clear peaks

Question 18

mean

Answer 18

the average of the values in a data set

Question 19

median

Answer 19

the midpoint of a distribution; half the observations are smaller and half are larger

Question 20

interquartile range

Answer 20

measure the range of the middle 50% of the data

Question 21

five-number summary

Answer 21

consists of the minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum

Question 22

standard deviation

Answer 22

measures the typical distance of the values in a distribution from the mean

Question 23

bar graph

Answer 23

graph used to display the distribution of a categorical variable or to compare the sizes of different quantities

Question 24

boxplot

Answer 24

graph of the 5 number summary

Question 25

census

Answer 25

study that attempts to collect data from every individual in the population

Question 26

back-to-back stemplot

Answer 26

plot used to compare the distribution of a quantitative variable for two groups

Question 27

dotplot

Answer 27

simple graph that shows each data value as a dot above its location on a number line

Question 28

frequency table

Answer 28

table that displays the count of observations in each category or class

Question 29

histogram

Answer 29

graph that displays the distribution of a quantitative variable

Question 30

inference

Answer 30

drawing conclusions that go beyond the data at hand

Question 31

pie chart

Answer 31

chart that shows the distribution of a categorical variable as a “pie” whose slices are sized by the counts or percents for the categories

Question 32

population

Answer 32

in a statistical study, the entire group of individuals we want information about

Question 33

range

Answer 33

the maximum value minus the minimum value for a set of quantitative data

Question 34

relative frequency table

Answer 34

table that shows the percents (relative frequencies) of observations in each category or class

Question 35

roundoff error

Answer 35

difference between the calculated approximation of a number and its exact mathematical value

Question 36

sample

Answer 36

subset of individuals in the population from which we actually collected data

Question 37

segmented bar graph

Answer 37

graph used to compare the distribution of a categorical variable in each of several groups.

Question 38

side-by-side bar graph

Answer 38

graph used to compare the distribution of a categorical variable in each of several groups

Question 39

splitting stems

Answer 39

method for spreading out a stemplot that has too few stems

Question 40

stemplot

Answer 40

simple graphical display for fairly small data sets that gives a quick picture of the shape of a distribution while including the actual numerical values in the graph

Question 41

two-way table

Answer 41

table of counts that organizes data about two categorical variables

Question 42

continuous variable

Answer 42

if a variable can take on any value between its minimum value and its maximum value, its called a continuous variable

Question 43

bivariate data

Answer 43

a study that examines the relationship between two variables; we are working with bivariate data

Question 44

univariate data

Answer 44

when we conduct a study that looks only at one variable, we are working with univariate data

Question 45

discrete variable

Answer 45

if a variable does not take place within a maximum and minimum; 0 and infinity

Question 46

variance

Answer 46

numerical value used to indicate how widely individuals in a group vary

Question 47

simpson’s paradox

Answer 47

phenomenon in probability and statistics, in which a trend appears in several different groups of data but disappears or reverses when these groups are combined

Question 48

shape

Answer 48

describes the type of graph; symmetric, skewed, etc.

Question 49

spread

Answer 49

range of the data on a graph