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1.9: Seeing Numbers – What I Want You to Learn

  • Page ID
    56380
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    I want you to “see” numbers. What are numbers?

    1. Numbers represent variation.
    2. We understand the world by understanding variation.
    3. The variation comes from our observation of “it.”
    4. When observing, we are observing how “it” varies.
    5. Variation is simply “this is different than that.”
    6. What is interesting about variation is it involves comparison. We know something is different by comparing “it” to another “it.”
    7. Everything varies in two ways.
      1. By type and by amount.
      2. Amount can be as a frequency count.
      3. Amount can be as an intensity.
      4. Both frequency count and intensity are thought of as from low to high.
    8. Our goals are to understand the variation by
      1. Describing the variation.
      2. Using the variation to predict something about why “it” varies.
    9. Statistics is how we achieve the goal of understanding variation.

    This page titled 1.9: Seeing Numbers – What I Want You to Learn is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Peter Ji.