Statistics Notes for Chapter 3

First step to data analysis: Make a picture

First step to making a picture is making a frequency pile. Possibly with
fractions or percentages to show frequencies.
Area Principle: the area occupies by a part of the graph corresponds to the
magnitude of the value it represents.
Bar charts make the distribution of the variable easier to see. We can also
make a relative frequency bar chart to see the relative proportion of passengers
falling to each category.
Pie charts are also useful to see how the whole group is split into separate
categories.
Contingency tables are made to show how each variable corresponds to another
variable to make any sort of correlation. The margins of the contingency table, the
frequency distribution of one of the variables is called the marginal distribution.
Be careful about what the question is asking. If the question is WHAT
PERCENT OF THE ______ WERE _____?, we should be looking at the row percent in
which the total is just in the category of their description. If the question is WHAT
PERCENT WERE _________ WHO __________?, the denominator would be the total of
the entire population. If the question is WHAT PERCENT OF THE ____________
_________?, then we are looking for people who were in a particular group.

Conditional Distributions: they show the distribution of one variable for just those
cases that satisfy a condition on another variable.
Segmented Bar charts: treats the bar as a whole and divides up the bar to the
percentage in each group.
Dont violate the area principle; showing graphs on a slant skews the data and the
look of each portion of the graph.
Dont confuse similar-sounding variables.
Dont forget to look at the variables separately
Be sure to use enough individuals
Dont overstate your case. Dont exaggerate
Dont use silly averages..