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2.10: Mathematical Notation

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    Mathematical Notation

    As noted above, statistics is not math. It does, however, use math as a tool. Many statistical formulas involve summing numbers. Fortunately there is a convenient notation for expressing summation. This section covers the basics of this summation notation.

    Let’s say we have a variable X that represents the weights (in grams) of 4 grapes:

    Grape

    X

    1

    4.6

    2

    5.1

    3

    4.9

    4

    4.4

       

    image

    We label Grape 1’s weight X1, Grape 2’s weight X2, etc. The following formula means to sum up the weights of the four grapes:

    The Greek letter Σ indicates summation. The “i = 1” at the bottom indicates that the summation is to start with X1 and the 4 at the top indicates that the summation will end with X4. The “Xi” indicates that X is the variable to be summed as i goes from 1 to 4. Therefore,

    image

    The symbol

    image

    indicates that only the first 3 scores are to be summed. The index variable i goes from 1 to 3.

    When all the scores of a variable (such as X) are to be summed, it is often convenient to use the following abbreviated notation:

    image

    Thus, when no values of i are shown, it means to sum all the values of X.

    Many formulas involve squaring numbers before they are summed. This is indicated as

    image

    = 21.16 + 26.01 + 24.01 + 19.36 = 90.54

    Notice that:

    image

    because the expression on the left means to sum up all the values of X and then square the sum (19² = 361), whereas the expression on the right means to square the numbers and then sum the squares (90.54, as shown).

    Some formulas involve the sum of cross products. Below are the data for variables X and Y. The cross products (XY) are shown in the third column. The sum of the cross products is 3 + 4 + 21 = 28.

    X

    Y

    XY

    1

    3

    3

    2

    2

    4

    3

    7

    21

         

    In summation notation, this is written as:

    image

    Three key concepts for statistical formulas:

    1. Perform summation in the correct order following the order of operations (PEMDAS).
    2. Typically we will use a set of scores for the mathematical operations/formulas used in statistics.
    3. Each operation, except for summation, creates a new column of numbers (we will see this in action in chapter 4). Summation adds up the sum for the column and is typically seen as the last row.

    2.10: Mathematical Notation is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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