Statistical Concepts and

Principles
Specific Objective
• To understand the basic concepts used in statistics and to
differentiate inferential and descriptive statistics.
• To solve and apply the concepts of descriptive statistics including
measures of central tendency, variability, position, and shape
involving small and large amount data.
• To create and analyze graphical presentations used in descriptive
statistics.
What is Statistics?
• Statistics are a set of mathematical procedures for summarizing and
interpreting observations. These observations are typically numerical or
categorical facts about specific people or things, and they are usually
referred to as data.
• Science of dealing with numbers
• Collection, presentation, analysis and interpretation and drawing
conclusion based data

• The most fundamental branch of statistics is descriptive statistics, that is,

statistics used to summarize or describe a set of observations.
• The branch of statistics used to interpret or draw inferences about a set of
observations is fittingly referred to as inferential statistics.
Statistical Terms
• Population or Universe refers to the totality of objects,
persons, places, things used in a particular study. All members
of a particular group of objects (items) or people (individual),
etc. which are subjects or respondents of a study.
• Sample is any subset of population or few members of a
population.
• Data are facts, figures and information collected on some
characteristics of a population or sample. These can be
classified as qualitative or quantitative data.
Statistical Terms
• Ungrouped (or raw) data are data which are not organized in
any specific way. They are simply the collection of data as they
are gathered.
• Grouped Data are raw data organized into groups or
categories with corresponding frequencies. Organized in this
manner, the data is referred to as frequency distribution.
Statistical Terms
• Parameter is the descriptive measure of a characteristic of a
population
• Statistic is a measure of a characteristic of sample
Statistical Terms
• Constant is a characteristic or property of a population or sample
which is common to all members of the group.
• Variable is a measure or characteristic or property of a population
or sample that may have a number of different values. It
differentiates a particular member from the rest of the group. It is
the characteristic or property that is measured, controlled, or
manipulated in research. They differ in many respects, most
notably in the role they are given in the research and in the type of
measures that can be applied to them.
CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
Variables can be classified into two according to purpose whether
experimental or mathematical.
Experimental Classification. A researcher may classify variable according
to the function they serve in the experiment.
1. Independent Variable is the variable that is changed or controlled in a
scientific experiment to test the effects on the dependent variable. The
independent variable is also called explanatory variable.
2. Dependent Variable is the variable being tested and measured in a
scientific experiment. The dependent variable is 'dependent' on the
independent variable. As the experimenter changes the independent
variable, the effect on the dependent variable is observed and recorded. The
dependent variable is also called the outcome variable.
Types of Data
• Qualitative-can be separated into different categories that are
distinguished by some non numeric characteristics
• Categorical Data (i.e. Gender, country
• Ordinal Data (i.e. Educational attainment, service quality rating)
• Quantitative Data-numbers representing counts or measurement
• Discrete Data-finite or countable
• Continuous Data-
Methods of Data Collection
Type of Data
• Primary
• Secondary
Methods for Collecting Data
• Retrospective-use the population or sample of the historical data which had been archived
over some period of time.

• Observational-process or population is observed and disturbed as little as possible, and the

quantities of interests are recorded

• Design of Experiment-deliberate or purposeful changes in the controllable variables of the

system or process is done.
Sampling
• Sampling is the process of selecting units (e.g., people, organizations) from a
population of interest. Sample must be a representative of the target population.
The target population is the entire group a researcher is interested in; the group
about which the researcher wishes to draw conclusions.
• Non-Probability Sampling (judgment or subjective sampling)
• Convenience Sampling
• Purposive
• Quota Sampling
• Proportional
• Non-proportional
• Probability Sampling
• Random Sampling
• Systematic Sampling
• Stratified Sampling
• Cluster Sampling
Planning and Conducting Surveys
• A survey is a method of asking respondents some well-constructed questions. It is an efficient way
of collecting information and easy to administer wherein a wide variety of information can be
collected.
• face-to-face interviews or self-administered through the use of questionnaires.
• When designing a survey, the following steps are useful:
1. Determine the objectives of your survey: What questions do you want to answer?
2. Identify the target population sample: Whom will you interview? Who will be the
respondents? What sampling method will you use?
3. Choose an interviewing method: face-to-face interview, phone interview, self-administered
paper survey, or internet survey.
4. Decide what questions you will ask in what order, and how to phrase them.
5. Conduct the interview and collect the information.
6. Analyze the results by making graphs and drawing conclusions.
Presentation of Data
• Tabular Presentation
• Graphical Presentation
• Textual Presentation
Measures of Location: The Sample Mean and Median
• Measures of location are designed to provide the analyst with some quantitative values of where the
center, or some other location, of data is located. One obvious and very useful measure is the
sample mean.
• The mean is simply a numerical average.

• The purpose of the sample median is to reflect the central tendency of the sample in such a way hat it is
uninfluenced by extreme values or outliers.
Measures of Location: The Sample
Mean and Median
•As an example, suppose the data set is the
following: 1.7, 2.2, 3.9, 3.11, and 14.7. The
sample mean and median are, respectively
𝑥=5.12,
ҧ 𝑥෤ = 3.9.
Activity
Measure of Variability
• Sample variability plays an important role in data analysis. Process and product variability is a fact
of life in engineering and scientific systems: The control or reduction of process variability is often a
source of major difficulty. More and more process engineers and managers are learning that
product quality and, as a result, profits derived from manufactured products are very much a
function of process variability.
• Sample Range and Sample Standard Deviation
• Just as there are many measures of central tendency or location, there are many measures of
spread or variability. Perhaps the simplest one is the sample range Xmax −Xmin. The sample
measure of spread that is used most often is the sample standard deviation. We again let x1, x2, . .
. , xn denote sample values.
 Activity

What is the value of the Range?

What is the value of the standard deviation?
What is the value od the sample variance
PROBABILITY
Probability
At the end of this module, it is expected that the students will be able to:
❑ Describe sample spaces and events.
❑ Define probability and some other important terms.
❑ Use basic counting and probability rules to solve different problems.
❑ Solve complex problems involving conditional probability rules.
 Probability
• Probability is simply how likely an event is
to happen.
• It is a value between zero and one, which
reveals the relative possibility that an event
will occur
• The probability of something which is certain to happen is 1.
• The probability of something which is impossible to happen is 0.
• The probability of something not happening is 1 minus the
probability that it will happen.
Probability Terms
• Experiment – is used to describe any process that generates a
set of data
• Sample space – is the set of all possible outcomes or results of
a random experiment.
• Event – An event is a subset of a sample space. Consists of a
set of possible outcomes of a probability experiment. Can be
one outcome or more than one outcome.
• Simple event – an event with one outcome.
• Compound event – an event with more than one outcome.
Sample Space and Events
Consider the experiment of tossing a die. If we are interested in the number that
shows on the top face, the sample space is
S= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

• What happens when we toss a coin thrice?

• Activity. Define the sample space S?
Activity

•An experiment consists of flipping a

coin and then flipping it a second
time if a head occurs. If a tail occurs
on the first flip, then a die is tossed
once.
Complement of an Event
• The complement of an event A with respect to S is the subset of all
elements of S that are not in A. We denote the complement of A by
the symbol A’.
• Let R be the event that a red card is selected from an ordinary
deck of 52 playing cards, and let S be the entire deck. Then R’ is
the event that the card selected from the deck is not a red card
but a black card.
 Intersection of an Event
• The intersection of two events A and B, denoted by the symbol A ∩ B, is the event
containing all elements that are common to A and B.
• Let E be the event that a person selected at random in a classroom is majoring in
engineering, and let F be the event that the person is female. Then E ∩ F is the
event of all female engineering students in the classroom.

For example, in the tossing of a die we might let A be the event that an even number
occurs and B the event that a number greater than 3 shows.
Then the subsets A = {2, 4, 6} and B = {4, 5, 6} are subsets of the same sample space
S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}.
Note that both A and B will occur on a given toss if the outcome is an element of the
subset {4, 6}, which is just the intersection of A and B.
Mutually Exclusive Event
• Two events A and B are mutually exclusive, or disjoint, if A ∩ B = φ,
that is, if A and B have no elements in common.
Let V = {a, e, i, o, u} and C = {l, r, s, t}; then it follows that V ∩ C = φ. That is, V and C have no
elements in common and, therefore, cannot both simultaneously occur.
For certain statistical experiments it is by no means unusual to define two events, A and B, that
cannot both occur simultaneously. The events A and B are then said to be mutually exclusive.
Union of an Event
• The union of the two events A and B, denoted by the symbol A∪B, is the event
containing all the elements that belong to A or B or both.
Let A = {a, b, c} and B = {b, c, d, e}; then
A ∪ B = {a, b, c, d, e}
 Counting Sample Points
• If an operation can be performed in n1 ways, and if for each of these a second
operation can be performed in n2 ways, then the two operations can be
performed in n1 n2 ways.

• How many sample points are there in the sample space when a pair of dice is
thrown once?
n1=6, n2=6
S={1&1, 1&2, 1&3, 1&4, 1&5, 1&6, 2&1, 2&2……..6&6}
S=n1 x n2 =36
• A developer of a new subdivision offers prospective home buyers a choice of
Tudor, rustic, colonial, and traditional exterior styling in ranch, two-story, and
split-level floor plans. In how many different ways can a buyer order one of these
homes? n1=4 n2=3
S=n1 x n2 = 12
Counting Sample Points
• If an operation can be performed in n1 ways, and if for each of these
a second operation can be performed in n2 ways, and for each of the
first two a third operation can be performed in n3 ways, and so forth,
then the sequence of operations can be performed in n1 n2 …nk
ways.
• Sam is going to assemble a computer by himself. He has the choice of
chips from two brands, a hard drive from four, memory from three,
and an accessory bundle from five local stores. How many different
ways can Sam order the parts?
Counting Sample Points
• A permutation is an arrangement of all or part of a set of objects.
• The number of permutations of n objects is n!.

Consider the three letters a, b, and c.

{abc, bca, cba, acb, bac, cab}
n=3
S=n!
S=3!
S=6
S=3 x 2 x 1
S=6
Counting Sample Points
• The number of permutations of n distinct objects taken r at a
time is

In one year, three awards (research, teaching, and service) will be given to a class
of 25 graduate students in a statistics department. If each student can receive at
most one award, how many possible selections are there?
 Counting Sample Points
A president and a treasurer are to be chosen from a student club
consisting of 50 people. How many different choices of officers are
possible if
(a) there are no restrictions;
(b) A will serve only if he is president;
(c) B and C will serve together or not at all;
(d) D and E will not serve together?
Counting Sample Points
• The number of permutations of n objects arranged in a circle is (n − 1)!.

• How many ways are there to seat a four people around a round table for lunch
References
• Walpole,Ronald E.,et al.,Probability and Statistics for Engineers and
Scientists,9th ed., Pearson Education Inc., 2016