Introduction to statistics

 In early 1987, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was faced a
unprecedented situation. Thousands of people were dying of acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
 Not only was there no known, but there was not even a drug available to
slow the developmental of the disease.
 Early clinical trials of an experimental antiviral drug known then as
azidothymidine (AZT) were promising
 Only 1 of 145 AIDS patients on AZT had died compared to 19 of 137
patients in a control groups given a placebo.
 There were medical questions remaining to be answered. What was the
optimal dose? For how long would the drug continue to thwart the virus?
 There was also an important statistical question, one that had to be
answered before the medical and ethical questions could be addressed.
Was the fewer number of deaths among AIDS patients using AZT the result
of the drug, or was it due just to chance?
 Statistical test showed that the differences between the two groups were
so great that the probability of their having occurred by chance was less
than one in a thousand (Fischl et al., 1987).
 Armed with these statistics, the FDA gave final approval of the use of AZT in
March of 1987, after only 21 months of testing.

What is Statistics?
 A set of mathematical procedure for organizing, summarizing, and
interpreting information (Gravetter, 2004)
 A branch of mathematics which specializes in enumeration data and their
relation to metric data (Guilford, 1978)
 Any numerical summary measure based on data from a sample; contrasts
with a parameter which is based on data from a population (Fortune,
1999).
Two General Purposes of Statistics
1. Statistic are used to organize and summarize the information so that the
researcher can see what happened in the research study and can communicate
the result to others
2. Statistics help the researcher to answer the general question that initiated the
research by determining exactly what conclusions are justified base on the result
that were obtained

Descriptive Statics
The purpose of descriptive statistics is to organize and to summarize observations
so that they are easier to comprehend.

Inferential Statistics
The purpose of inferential statistics is to draw an inference about condition that
exist in the population (the complete set of observation) from study of a sample
(a subset) drawn from population

Some Tips on Studying Statistics

 Is statistics a hard subject? IT IS and IT ISN’T
 In general, learning how-to-do-it requires attention, care, and arithmetic
accuracy, but it is not particularly difficult.
 Some parts will go faster, but others will require concentration and several
readings
 Work enough of questions and problems to feel comfortable
 What you learn in earlier stages becomes the foundation for what follows
 Try always to relate the statistical tools to real problems

Populations and Samples

THE POPULATION is the set of all the individuals of interest in particular study

THE SAMPLE is a set of individuals selected from a population, usually intended

to represent the population in a research study The sample is selected from the
population The result from the sample are generalized to the population.
Statistics in Education
Measurement and evaluation are essential part of teaching learning process. In
this process we obtained scores and then interpret these score in order to take
decisions. Statistics enables us to study these scores objectively. It makes the
teaching learn-ing process more efficient.

The knowledge of statistics helps the teacher in the following way:

1. It helps the teacher to provide the most exact type of description:

When we want to know about the pupil we administer a test or observe the child.
Then from the result we describe about the pupil’s performance or trait. Statistics
helps the teacher to give an accurate description of the data.

2. It makes the teacher definite and exact in procedures and thinking:

Sometimes due to lack of technical knowledge the teachers become vague in
describing pupil’s performance. But statistics enables him to describe the
performance by using proper language, and symbols. Which make the
interpretation definite and exact?

3. It enables the teacher to summarize the results in a meaningful and

convenient form:
Statistics gives order to the data. It helps the teacher to make the data precise
and mean-ingful and to express it in an understandable and interpretable
manner.

4. It enables the teacher to draw general conclusions:

Statistics helps to draw conclusions as well as extracting con-clusions. Statistical
steps also help to say about how much faith should be placed in any conclusion
and about how far we may extend our generalization.
5. It helps the teacher to predict the future perfor-mance of the
pupils:
Statistics enables the teacher to predict how much of a thing will happen under
conditions we know and have measured. For example the teacher can predict the
probable score of a student in the final examination from his entrance test score.
But the prediction may be erroneous due to different factors. Statistical methods
tell about how much margin of error to allow in making predictions.

6. Statistics enables the teacher to analyses some of the causal factors

underlying complex and otherwise be-wildering events:
It is a common factor that the behavioral outcome is a resultant of numerous
causal factors. The reason why a particular student performs poor in a particular
subject are varied and many. So with the appropriate statistical methods we can
keep these extraneous variables constant and can observe the cause of failure of
the pupil in a particular subject.

7. The program helps teach students the crucial skills they need to
thrive in an increasingly data-driven world.
Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of jobs
related to statistics is expected to increase by more than 30% between 2014 and
2024.

8. SIS reaches students by using technology to teach statistics.

SIS includes a number of tools that students can use to access data such as State
Facts for Students, which allows students to discover information about their
state; Quick Facts, an application that displays tables, maps, and charts of
frequently requested statistics; and Census Business Builder, an easy way to
access and use key demographic and economic data.
Importance of Statistics
Statistics plays a vital role in every field of human activity. Statistics helps in
determining the existing position of per capita income, unemployment,
population growth rates, housing, schooling medical facilities, etc., in a country.
Now statistics holds a central position in almost every field, including industry,
commerce, trade, physics, chemistry, economics, mathematics, biology, botany,
psychology, astronomy, etc., so the application of statistics is very wide. Now we
shall discuss some important fields in which statistics is commonly applied.

(1) Business
Statistics plays an important role in business. A successful businessman must be
very quick and accurate in decision making. He knows what his customers want;
he should therefore know what to produce and sell and in what quantities.
Statistics helps businessmen to plan production according to the taste of the
customers, and the quality of the products can also be checked more efficiently
by using statistical methods. Thus, it can be seen that all business activities are
based on statistical information. Businessmen can make correct decisions about
the location of business, marketing of the products, financial resources, etc.

(2) Economics
Economics largely depends upon statistics. National income accounts are
multipurpose indicators for economists and administrators, and statistical
methods are used to prepare these accounts. In economics research, statistical
methods are used to collect and analyze the data and test hypotheses. The
relationship between supply and demand is studied by statistical methods;
imports and exports, inflation rates, and per capita income are problems which
require a good knowledge of statistics.

(3) Mathematics
Statistics plays a central role in almost all natural and social sciences. The
methods used in natural sciences are the most reliable but conclusions drawn
from them are only probable because they are based on incomplete evidence.
Statistics helps in describing these measurements more precisely. Statistics is a
branch of applied mathematics. A large number of statistical methods like
probability averages, dispersions, estimation, etc., is used in mathematics, and
different techniques of pure mathematics like integration, differentiation and
algebra are used in statistics.

(4) Banking
Statistics plays an important role in banking. Banks make use of statistics for a
number of purposes. They work on the principle that everyone who deposits their
money with the banks does not withdraw it at the same time. The bank earns
profits out of these deposits by lending it to others on interest. Bankers use
statistical approaches based on probability to estimate the number of deposits
and their claims for a certain day.

(5) State Management (Administration)

Statistics is essential to a country. Different governmental policies are based on
statistics. Statistical data are now widely used in making all administrative
decisions. Suppose if the government wants to revise the pay scales of employees
in view of an increase in the cost of living, and statistical methods will be used to
determine the rise in the cost of living. The preparation of federal and provincial
government budgets mainly depends upon statistics because it helps in
estimating the expected expenditures and revenue from different sources. So
statistics are the eyes of the administration of the state.

(6) Accounting and Auditing

Accounting is impossible without exactness. But for decision making purposes, so
much precision is not essential; the decision may be made on the basis of
approximation, known as statistics. The correction of the values of current assets
is made on the basis of the purchasing power of money or its current value.
In auditing, sampling techniques are commonly used. An auditor determines the
sample size to be audited on the basis of error.
(7) Natural and Social Sciences
Statistics plays a vital role in almost all the natural and social sciences. Statistical
methods are commonly used for analyzing experiments results, and testing their
significance in biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, meteorology, research,
chambers of commerce, sociology, business, public administration,
communications and information technology, etc.

(8) Astronomy
Astronomy is one of the oldest branches of statistical study; it deals with the
measurement of distance, and sizes, masses and densities of heavenly bodies by
means of observations. During these measurements errors are unavoidable, so
the most probable measurements are found by using statistical methods.
Example: This distance of the moon from the earth is measured. Since history,
astronomers have been using statistical methods like method of least squares to
find the movements of stars.