Department of Education

8 National Capital Region

SCHOOLS DIVISION OFFICE
MARIKINA CITY

Statistics
Quarter 1 – Module 1:
History of Statistics

Writer: MYRTLE GWEN D. DELA CRUZ

Layout Illustrator: JOEL ESTUDILLO

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 What I Need to Know

This module is designed to give you an idea of the development of Statistics in

history. The scope of this module permits it to be utilized in many alternative learning
situations. The language used recognizes the various vocabulary levels of students. The
lessons are arranged to follow the standard sequence of the course.

The module will help you understand how several famous personalities and
occurrences contributed in the development of the Statistics we know and use today.

After going through this module, the learners are specifically expected to:
1. cite a brief history of the development of Statistics
2. define Statistics as it was used in the past and as it is used today.

What I Know
Read and answer the following questions carefully. Write the letter of the correct
answer on a separate answer sheet.
1. What is the first tangible manifestation that man collected and presented
observed information?
A. Babylonian calendar C. Chinese Oracle bones
B. Egyptian hieroglyphics D. Stone Age cave wall paintings

2. What was King David’s sin that God gave him a choice of three punishments
for this sin—three years of famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies,
or three days of plague, and of which he chose the third?
A. He called for a census C. He killed Goliath
B. He conquered other lands D. He committed adultery

3. Why were Mary and Joseph in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, that time
when Jesus was born?
A. They lived there C. Told by angels to go there
B. They were being pursued D. They participated in a census

4. What favorite pastime in earlier times led to the study of the Probability
Theory?
A. Gambling C. Sports
B. Poetry Reading D. Singing and dancing

5. Which of the following situations will we need to have evidence or proof before
we can take action or believe that something is true?
A. Knowing that a vaccine is effective
B. Determining if a traffic solution is best
C. Accusing a person of a crime
D. All of these

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 6. Which of the following is not a use of the earliest forms of Statistics?
A. Counting population C. Monitoring trade practices
B. Keeping track of territories D. Verifying scientific claims

7. Who first coined the German word for Statistics?

A. E.A.W. von Zimmermann C. Jacob Bernoulli
B. Gottfried Achenwall D. John Sinclair

8. Which theory led to the advancement of Statistics as a science making it

possible for one to make statistical inferences?
A. Chaos Theory C. Game Theory
B. Probability Theory D. Theory of Evolution

9. Which statistician introduced the concept of the average man?

A. Abraham De Moivre C. Blaise Pascal
B. Adolphe Quetelet D. Carl Friedrich Gauss

10. Which statistician discovered the t-distribution and its use?

A. Francis Edgeworth C. Ronald Fisher
B. John Graunt D. William Gosset

Lesson
History of Statistics
1

What’s In
Do you agree with her answer? What other answer can you give?

Sir, because the past

Why do we study about causes the present,
history and major and so the future.
developments that
happen over time?

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 What’s New
Find the hidden word(s) by writing the corresponding letter of each numbered boxes on
the blank boxes below to come up with the correct answer. Use a separate sheet of
paper for your answers.

& A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Why did ancient rulers collect information from their properties, citizens and
neighboring lands?
1.
23 1 18 6 1 18 5

2.
1 7 18 9 3 21 12 20 21 18 5

3.
20 5 18 18 9 20 15 18 9 5 19

4.
4 5 13 15 7 18 1 16 8 9 3 19

5.
20 1 24 5 19 0 20 18 1 4 5

What It Is

A BRIEF HISTORY of STATISTICS

Man has been collecting, presenting, and interpreting data for various reasons
since the beginning of civilization. Its earliest manifestation is found in drawings or
paintings in cave walls as early as the Stone Age.

Other early applications of data collection and analysis include the Babylonian
calendar for monitoring agricultural activities, Athenian and Spartan armies preparing
provisions and investigating opponents for oncoming combats, Egyptians taking stock
of their wealth and territories before and after the construction of the pyramids, world
explorers charting seas and land, and many more.

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ETYMOLOGY

The word Statistics was derived from the New Latin words statisticum collegium
which means the council of state and the Italian word statista which means statesman
or politician.

The word Statistik was first used in the German book with the same name,
published in 1749 by Gottfried Achenwall, and was used to describe the analysis of
demographic and economic data about the state.

Dr. Eberhardt August Wilhelm von Zimmermann introduced the word Statistics
in England and its use was popularized by Sir John Sinclair through his work,
Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799.

Early examples of statistical inference

• 5th century B.C. — Athenians estimated the height of ladders necessary to

scale the walls of Platea by having multiple soldiers count the bricks, then
multiplying the most frequent count (the mode) by the height of a brick.
• Al-Kindi (801-873 A.D.) wrote “Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic
Messages” which showed how to use frequency analysis to decipher encrypted
messages or codes.
• John Graunt in his journal “Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the
Bills of Mortality” estimated the population of London in 1662 as 384,000 using
records on the number of funerals per year, the death rate, and average family
size.

Statistics was originally limited to the description analysis of demographic and

economic data about the state, but was broadened in the 1800s to include the
collection, summary, and analysis of data of any type. It was also later connected with
probability for the purpose of statistical inference.

Probability

By 1700, the mathematics of many games of chance was well understood. Major
contributors to the development of the Probability Theory were Fermat, Pascal,
Huygens, and Leibniz. But this early work did not consider the inferential problem:
How, from one or several outcomes of the game, could one learn about the properties
of the game and how could one quantify the uncertainty of the inferred knowledge of
these properties?

It was Jacob Bernoulli who began down this road. His weak law of large numbers
was published in 1713 (posthumously), and he put a lower bound on the probability
that X/N (the proportion of successes in N repeated trials) was within a specified
distance from the true probability of success.

Abraham De Moivre refined Bernoulli’s bound and stumbled upon a discrete

version of the normal curve as an approximation to binomial probabilities.

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 In 1809, Carl Friedrich Gauss showed how the (sample) mean maximizes the
likelihood of the errors, while in early 1810, Pierre-Simon Laplace came out with the
Central Limit Theorem, which showed that the aggregate of a large number of errors
will be approximately normally distributed. Later in 1810, Laplace read Gauss’s work
and made the revolutionary connection between the central limit theorem and least
squares estimation: the error curve.

The Gauss-Laplace synthesis is regarded as one of the major milestones in the

history of science, and it became a staple in astronomy and other physical sciences by
the mid-1800s, but it took until about 1900 before it had fully diffused into other
scientific disciplines.

Some important figures after Laplace and Gauss

• Francis Galton fitted normal curves to data, discovered percentiles, standard

deviation, regression to the mean, and correlation.
• Francis Edgeworth was the first to compare means of two populations, using a
precursor to the two-sample t test.
• Karl Pearson introduced moments, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, P-value,
Pearson’s chi-square test, principal component analysis, among many other
things.
• Ronald A. Fisher introduced randomization test, named and promoted the
analysis of variance and the design of experiments. He has been described as "a
genius who almost single-handedly created the foundations for modern
statistical science“. Fisher is considered the Father of Modern Statistics.
• Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician, astronomer, statistician, and
sociologist is known for his application of statistics and probability theory to
social phenomena. He was the first, on any systematic basis, to call attention to
the kinds of structured behavior that could be observed and identified only
through statistical means. He brought into fame the momentous concept of “the
average man” and his behavior.
• William Sealy Gosset, better known by his pseudonym "Student” is associated
with the discovery of the t-distribution and its use. He had a profound effect on
the practice of statistics in industry and agriculture.

Today…

Statistics is defined as a branch of science which deals with the collection,

presentation, analysis, and interpretation of data.
The use of modern computers has advanced large-scale statistical computation,
and has also made possible new methods that are impractical to perform manually.
Statistics now has significant applications in most, if not all fields of study.

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 What’s More
Research on this!

1. Make a timeline for the major developments in the field of Statistics.

2. Include the names of major contributors to the progress of Statistics.
3. Bring together these information and organize these in a Word Document
then save this as a pdf file. Include your sources of information.
4. Name the document Statistic Timeline- Surname and Section, i.e.
Statistics Timeline – Dela Cruz Appreciation.
Criteria:

Comprehensiveness of Content - 5 points

Citation of Sources - 3 points
Organization of Ideas - 2 points
10 points

What I Have Learned

DIALECTIC JOURNAL

Copy this table in a journal. For every new concept or terminology you learn, fill
out a new entry.
Date: ___________ Rate how well you understood
Entry No._______ the concept:

Concept: (Statistik, Statistics)

Definition/Description:

Illustration/Formula (when applicable):

Examples:

Application in Real Life:

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RUBRICS:

Score Requirement
5 Well- defined concepts with illustration/formula (when
applicable). Gave correct examples and good applications to
real life, Rated how well you understood the concept with 5
stars.
4 Well- defined concepts with illustration/formula (when
applicable). Gave good examples and appropriate applications.
3 Well-defined concepts. Gave some good examples but incorrect
applications or vice versa.
2 Gave passable definition to concepts. Gave incorrect examples
and applications.
1 Did not define concepts correctly. Gave incorrect examples and
applications.

What I Can Do
What if?
1. What do you think would have happened if Statistics did not develop as a science?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. If you could develop a concept that would benefit society, what would it be about?
Why? _________________________________________________________________________

ASSESSMENT
TRUE OR FALSE. Determine if the given statement is True or False.
1 The word statistics was derived from the New Latin statisticum
collegium which means the council of state.

2 Gottfried Achenwall was the first to coin the word Statistik.

3 Statistics in ancient times was used only for gathering and analysing
data important to the state/government.

4 William Gosset was considered the Father of Modern Statistics.

5 The mathematical theory that led to the development of Inferential

Statistics was the Game Theory.

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 Additional Activities

Statistics in the Philippines

A. Match the major statistical agency in the Philippine Statistical System
with their logo and function.
Philippine Statistical
Logo - Function
Agency

1. National Statistical
A single general-purpose
Coordination Board statistical agency
_______
a.

A research and training arm of

2. Philippine Statistics the Philippine Statistical
Authority ________ System
b.

A policy-making and
3. Bureau of Agricultural
coordinating body for statistical
Statistics _________
matters
c.

4. Bureau of Labor and Serve as the source of official

Employment Statistics statistics on agriculture, fishery
_______ and related fields.
d.

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5. Philippine Statistical Serve as the source of official
Research Training statistics in the field of labor
Institute ________ and employment
e.
Can you find out why, how, and when these agencies came to be? Give details.
B. Name 3 Filipino statisticians and enumerate their contributions.
C. Bring together these information and organize these in a Word Document then
save this as a pdf file. Include your sources of information.

SUMMATIVE TEST
Read the following questions carefully. Write the letter of the correct answer in a
separate answer sheet.
1. Which New Latin word means the “council of state”?
A. Statista C. Statisticum collegium
B. Statistik D. Statisticum communion

2. How was the word Statistik originally defined?

A. The analysis of demographic and economic data about the state.
B. The branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis,
interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data.
C. The science that deals with the collection, presentation analysis, and
interpretation of data.
D. The science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities for
the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative
sample.
3. Which statistician discovered percentiles, standard deviation, regression, and
correlation?
A. Carl Friedrich Gauss C. Francis Galton
B. Karl Pearson D. William Gosset

4. Who first used frequency analysis in deciphering encrypted messages?

A. Al Kindi C. Karl Pearson
B. Gottfried Achenwall D. Pierre Simon Laplace

5. Which statistician discovered the Chi-square test?

A. Francis Galton C. Karl Pearson
B. John Graunt D. Pierre Simon Laplace

6. Who popularized the word Statistics in English through his work Statistical
Account of Scotland 1791-1799?
A. E.A.W. von Zimmermann C. Jacob Bernoulli
B. Gottfried Achenwall D. John Sinclair

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 7. Which statistician is considered the Father of Modern Statistics?
A. Adolphe Quetelet C. Pierre De Fermat
B. Carl Friedrich Gauss D. Ronald Fisher

8. Which statistician discovered the discrete version of the normal distribution as

an approximation of the binomial distribution?
A. Abraham De Moivre C. Blaise Pascal
B. Adolphe Quetelet D. Carl Friedrich Gauss

9. Which statistician is showed that the sample mean increased the likelihood of
errors?
A. Adolphe Quetelet C. Pierre De Fermat
B. Carl Friedrich Gauss D. Ronald Fisher

10. Which statistician discovered the Central limit Theorem?

A. Francis Galton C. Karl Pearson
B. John Graunt D. Pierre Simon Laplace

References

Almeda, J.V., Capistrano, T. G., & Sarte, G. M. F.(2010). Elementary Statistics. UP

Press
A Brief History of Statistics (Selected Topics). (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2020,
from http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~dzimmer/alphaseminar/Statistics-
history.pdf
History of Statistics. (2020, September 02). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_statistics
History of Statistics. (2019, June 12). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from
https://www.emathzone.com/tutorials/basic-statistics/history-of-statistics.html
History of Statistics. (2019, June 12). Retrieved September 18, 2020, from
https://www.emathzone.com/tutorials/basic-statistics/history-of-statistics.html
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2020, August 23). Retrieved September 18, 2020, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Statistics_Authority
Retrieved September 18, 2020, from http://www.psa.gov.ph/
Retrieved June 20, 2020, from
http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~dzimmer/alphaseminar/Statistics-
history.pdf
Stigler, S. M. (n.d.). The History of Statistics Summary.Retrieved September 18, 2020,
from https://www.enotes.com/topics/history-statistics
Walpole, R. E., Myers, R. H., & Myers, S. L. (1989). Probability and Statistics for
Engineers and Scientists (9th ed.). Collier Macmillan.
Walpole, R. E. (1997). Introduction to Statistics. Prentice Hall International.
Williams, T., & Anderson, D. (2020, February 03). Statistics. Retrieved September 18,
2020, from https://www.britannica.com/science/statistics

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Answer Key:

What I Know: DADADDBBBD

What’s In: Answers may vary
What’s New: 1. Warfare
2. Agriculture
3. Territories
4. Demographics
5. Taxes & Trade
What’s More: Answers may vary
What I Can Do: Answers may vary
Assessment: TTTFF
Additional Activities: Will be given as a performance task.

Development Team of the Module

Writer: Myrtle Gwen D. Dela Cruz
Reviewer: Analyn C. Santos
Illustrator: Myrtle Gwen D. Dela Cruz
Layout Illustrator: Joel Estudillo
Management Team: Analyn C. Santos
Math Department Head
Maria A, Nicolas
OIC, Marikina Science High School

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