WHAT IS STATISTICS?

Statistics is the mathematical science involved in the application of

quantitative principles to the collection, analysis, and presentation of
numerical data. The practice of statistics utilizes data from some population
in order to describe it meaningfully, to draw conclusions from it, and make
informed decisions. The population may be a community, an organization, a
production line, a service counter, or a phenomenon such as the weather.
Statisticians determine which quantitative model is correct for a given type
of problem and they decide what kinds of data should be collected and
examined. Applied statistics concerns the application of the general
methodology to particular problems. This often calls for use of the
techniques of computer-based data analysis.

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS'
A set of brief descriptive coefficients that summarizes a given data set, which can
either be a representation of the entire population or a sample. The measures
used to describe the data set are measures of central tendency and measures of
variability or dispersion.

Population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in the
same geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding.
In ecology, the population of a certain species in a certain area is estimated using the Lincoln Index.
The area that is used to define a sexual population is defined as the area where inter-breeding is
potentially possible between any pair within the area. The probability of interbreeding is greater than
the probability of cross-breeding with individuals from other areas. Under normal conditions,
breeding is substantially more common within the area than across the border.

Sample is a set of data collected and/or selected from a statistical population by a

defined procedure.

Parameter is something in an equation that is passed on in an equation. It means

something different in statistics. Its a value that tells you something about a population. It is the
opposite from a statistic, which tells you something about a portion of the population.

Statistic (singular) is a single measure of some attribute of a sample (e.g., its arithmetic
mean value). It is calculated by applying a function (statistical algorithm) to the values of
the items of the sample, which are known together as a set of data.

Data
factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning,
discussion, or calculation <the datais plentiful and easily available H. A. Gleason,
Jr.><comprehensive data on economic growth have been published N. H. Jacoby>
information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant
or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful information
in numerical form that can be digitally transmitted or processed

Sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a statistical
population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. Each observation measures one or
more properties (such as weight, location, color) of observable bodies distinguished as independent
objects or individuals. In survey sampling, weights can be applied to the data to adjust for
the sample design, particularly stratified sampling.

Summation is the operation of adding a sequence of numbers; the result is their sum or total. If
numbers are added sequentially from left to right, any intermediate result is a partial sum, prefix
sum, or running total of the summation. The numbers to be summed (called addends, or
sometimes summands) may be integers, rational numbers, real numbers, or complex numbers.

What are the different sampling techniques?

Research studies are distinct events that involve a particular group of participants. However,
researchers usually intend on answering a general question about a larger population of
individuals rather than a small select group. Therefore, the main aim of psychological research
is to be able to make valid generalisations and extend their results beyond those who participate.
For this reason, the selection of participants is a very crucial issue when planning research.
Important of statistics in:
Education
The field of education has a number of challenges in terms of policy planning, and
statistics are particularly important as they often provide some of the only objective
information that administrators use when making organizational and curricular

decisions. Without this hard data in place, often nothing separates the merits of the various
arguments that people on different sides of policy decisions make supporting their own cases.

Economics is defined as the study of how people behave with regard to the production and
consumption of goods. As a social science, economics attempts to describe trends in consumer
markets, such as wealth acquisition and transfer.

Statistics are an important tool for running a business. Managers are required to make
decisions based on data collected over time. This data is worthless unless it is analyzed and
interpreted; statistics allows business managers to analyze the data and arrive at meaningful
conclusions.
Gerolamo cardano
He was born in Pavia, Lombardy, the illegitimate child of Fazio Cardano, a mathematically
gifted lawyer, who was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci. In his autobiography, Cardano claimed that his
mother had attempted to abort him. Shortly before his birth, his mother had to move
from Milan to Pavia to escape the Plague; her three other children died from the disease.
In 1520, he entered the University of Pavia and later in Padua studied medicine. His eccentric and
confrontational style did not earn him many friends and he had a difficult time finding work after his
studies ended. In 1525, Cardano repeatedly applied to the College of Physicians in Milan, but was
not admitted owing to his combative reputation and illegitimate birth.
Born: September 24, 1501, Pavia, Italy Died: September 21, 1576 ,Rome, Italy
Parents: Fazio Cardano Books: Ars Magna, Ars magna or The rules of algebra
Education: University of Pavia, University of Padua

Chevelier de Mere (1607-1684) was a gentleman gambler in France who made it to the
history book by turning to Blaise Pascal, an eminent mathematician of his time, for help
in finding a mathematical answer for why he consistently lost money in a certain game
of dice. Unlike other gamblers who might just chalk it up to bad luck, he pursued the
cause of the problem with the help of Pascal. As a result of Pascals effort combined with
that of Pierre de Fermet, the area of probability subsequently emerged as an academic
field of study.

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet (French: [ktl]; 22 February 1796 17 February

1874) was a Belgianastronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. He
founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introducing
statistical methods to the social sciences. His name is sometimes spelled with an
accent as Qutelet. Adolphe was born in Ghent (which at that time was a part of the
newborn French Republic), the son of Franois-Augustin-Jacques-Henri Quetelet, a
Frenchman and Anne Franoise Vandervelde, a Flemish woman. His father Franois
was born at Ham, in Picardy, and being of a somewhat adventurous spirit, crossed the
English Channel and became a British citizen and the secretary of a Scottish nobleman.
In this capacity he traveled with his employer on the Continent, particularly spending
time in Italy. At aged about 31, he settled in Ghent and was employed by the city, where
Adolphe was born the fifth of nine children, several of whom died in childhood.

Blaise Pascal (French: [blz paskal]; 19 June 1623 19 August 1662) was a
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child
prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the
natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study offluids, and
clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli.
Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.
In 1642, while still a teenager, he started some pioneering work on calculating machines. After three
years of effort and fifty prototypes, he was one of the first two inventors of the mechanical
calculator. He built 20 of these machines (called Pascal's calculators and later Pascalines) in the
following ten years.[4] Pascal was an important mathematician, helping create two major new areas of
research: he wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of 16, and
later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development
of modern economics and social science.

Francis Galton, FRS (/frnss ltn/; 16 February 1822 17 January 1911) was an
English Victorianprogressive, polymath, psychologist,[1][2] anthropologist, eugenicist,
tropical explorer, geographer, inventor,meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician,
and statistician. He was knighted in 1909.

Galton produced over 340 papers and books. He also created the statistical concept
of correlation and widely promoted regression toward the mean. He was the first to
apply statistical methods to the study of human differences and inheritance of
intelligence, and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys for collecting data on
human communities, which he needed for genealogical and biographical works and for
his anthropometric studies.

Karl Pearson FRS[1] (/prsn/; originally named Carl; 27 March 1857 27 April 1936[2]) was an
influential English mathematician and biometrician. He has been credited with establishing the
discipline of mathematical statistics,[3][4]and contributed significantly to the field of
biometrics, meteorology, theories of social Darwinism and eugenics.[5] A major proponent
of eugenics, Pearson was also a protg and biographer of Sir Francis Galton.
In 1911 he founded the world's first university statistics department at University College London.
A sesquicentenaryconference was held in London on 23 March 2007, to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of his birth.

Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS[2] (17 February 1890 29 July 1962) was
an English statistician, evolutionary biologist,mathematician, geneticist, and eugenicist. Fisher is
known as one of the chief architects of the neo-Darwinian synthesis, for his important contributions
to statistics, including the analysis of variance (ANOVA), method of maximum likelihood, fiducial
inference, and the derivation of various sampling distributions, and for being one of the three
principal founders of population genetics. Anders Hald called him "a genius who almost singlehandedly created the foundations for modern statistical science",[3] while Richard Dawkins named
him "the greatest biologist since Darwin