3: Examining the Evidence Using Graphs and Statistics
Chapter 1 discussed what a population, sample, parameter, and statistic are, and how to take different types of samples. Chapter 2 discussed ways to graphically display data. There was also a discussion of important characteristics: center, variations, distribution, outliers, and changing characteristics of the data over time. Distributions and outliers can be answered using graphical means. Finding the center and variation can be done using numerical methods that will be discussed in this chapter. Both graphical and numerical methods are part of a branch of statistics known as descriptive statistics . Later descriptive statistics will be used to make decisions and/or estimate population parameters using methods that are part of the branch called inferential statistics .
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- 3.1: Measures of Center
- This section focuses on measures of central tendency. Many statistical question can be answered by knowing the center of the data set. There are three measures of the “center” of the data. They are the mode, median, and mean. Any of the values can be referred to as the “average.”
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- 3.2: Measures of Spread
- Variability is an important idea in statistics. Variability describes how the data are spread out. If the data are very close to each other, then there is low variability. If the data are very spread out, then there is high variability. How do you measure variability? It would be good to have a number that measures it. This section will describe some of the different measures of variability, also known as variation.
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- 3.3: Ranking
- Along with the center and the variability, another useful numerical measure is the ranking of a number. A percentile is a measure of ranking. It represents a location measurement of a data value to the rest of the values. Many standardized tests give the results as a percentile. Doctors also use percentiles to track a child’s growth.