Chapter 1 Statistics

In this chapter, you will be introduced to statistics. This branch of mathematics is concerned with data – how it is collected, organized, analyzed, interpreted, and presented. Statistics is used in almost every occupation is some way.

In the health professions, data is collected and analyzed to determine whether a drug therapy is effective. In business, statistics are used to help understand consumer behavior and to create marketing campaigns based on that behavior. Engineers collect statistics to help them design better production systems. Cities and towns collect data on traffic patterns so that signals may be synchronized to make traffic flow better.

Traffic jam

“Traffic jam” by drohadi22 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Our goal in this chapter is to

  • Calculate and interpret graphical and numerical summaries of data including measures of central tendency and dispersion.
  • Use the basic properties of the normal distribution to solve applied problems.

The sections below will help you to accomplish these goals by introducing the vocabulary and mathematical techniques needed to analyze data. Each of the section below contain a workbook and videos to help you master the content. Work out the practice problems in the workbook so that you have a record of your learning and can use them to study for quizzes and exams.

Section 1 – Types of Data

Section 2 – Sampling and Bias

Section 3 – Visualizing Data

Section 4 – Measures of Central Tendency

Section 5 – Measures of Spread

Section 6 – The Normal Distribution