Intro to Stats

The Role of Statistics

&
Graphical Methods for
Describing Data
Statistics
the science of
collecting, analyzing,
and drawing
conclusions from data
Suppose we wanted to know
something about the GPAs of high
school graduates in the nation this
year.

We could
What collect
term data from
would be all high
schools in the
used nation. “all
to describe
high school graduates”?
Population
 The entire collection of
individuals or objects about which
information is desired
 A census is performed to gather
What do you call it when
about the entire population
you collect data about the
entire population?
Suppose we wanted to know
something about the GPAs of high
school graduates in the nation this
year. Why might we not want
to use a census here?
We could collect data from all high
schools in the nation.
If we didn’t perform a
census, what would we do?
Sample
 A subset of the population,
selected for study in some
prescribed manner
What would a sample of all high school graduates across
the nation look like?
A list created by randomly selecting the GPAs of
all high school graduates from each state.
Suppose
Once we
we wanted to knowthe
have collected
something
data, whatabout
wouldtheweGPAs of high
do with it?
school graduates in the nation this
year.

We could collect data from a sample

of high schools in the nation.
Descriptive statistics
- the methods of organizing &
summarizing data
If the sample of high school GPAs contained 10,000
numbers, how could the data be described or summarized?
• Create a graph
• State the range of GPAs
• Calculate the average GPA
Suppose we wanted to know
something about the GPAs of high
school graduates in the nation this
year.

We could collect data from a sample

ofCould we use the
high schools data
in the from this
nation.
sample to answer our question?
Inferential statistics
- involves making generalizations
from a sample to a population
Based on the sample, if the average GPA for high school
graduates was 3.0, what generalization could be made?
The average national GPA for this year’s high
school graduate is approximately 3.0.
Could someone claim that the average GPA for Webb
graduates is 3.0?
Be sure to sample from the
No. Generalizations based on the results of a sample can only be
made back to the population from which the sample came from.
population of interest!!
Variable
any characteristic whose
value may change from
one individual or object to
another
Is this a variable . . .
The number of wrecks per week
at the intersection outside?
Data
observations on a
single variable or
simultaneously on
For this variable . . .
two
orTheintersection
more
number ofvariables
wrecks per week at the
outside . . . What could
observations be? What about favorite color?
Types of variables
Categorical variables
• or qualitative
• identifies basic
differentiating characteristics
of the population
Numerical variables
or quantitative
observations or measurements take
on numerical values
makes sense to average these
values
two types - discrete & continuous
Discrete (numerical)
listable set of values
usually counts of items
Number of siblings
Continuous (numerical)
data can take on any values
in the domain of the variable
usually measurements of
something
Classification by the
number of variables
Univariate - data that describes a single
characteristic of the population
Bivariate - data that describes two
characteristics of the population
Multivariate - data that describes more
than two characteristics (beyond the scope of
this course
Graphs for categorical data
Bar Graph
 Used for categorical data
 Bars do not touch
 Categorical variable is typically on the horizontal
axis
 To describe – comment on which occurred the
most often or least often
 May make a double bar graph or segmented bar
graph for bivariate categorical data sets
 Segmented is basically a pie graph in a column format
 100
Write a few
%
sentences about
why this graph Chevy
may be Ford
misleading. Toyota
What other ways Nissan
could a graph be 95%
misleading?
Pie (Circle) graph
 Used for categorical data
 To make:

 Proportion 360°
 Using a protractor, mark off each part
 To describe – comment on which occurred the
most often or least often
Segmented bar chart
 A percentage segmented bar chart is a
stacked pie graph where each bar is set to be
100%. Then you graph each of the different
values as a percent of that bar.
 Two-way tables and segmented bar charts to
examine the relationship between two
categorical variables.
 Present a part-whole relation over time 
Example
Dance Sports TV
Total

Men 2 10 8 20

Women 16 6 8 30

Total 18 16 16 50

Dance Sports TV
Total

Men 0.10 0.50 0.40 1.00

Women 0.53 0.20 0.27 1.00

Total 0.36 0.32 0.32 1.00

How to describe Categorical Data
 What happened the most
 What happened the least
 Some trend if the variable is ordinal data
– Has some order to the categories
– Rating on a Likert Scale (1-5)
Graphs for numerical data
Make sure you have something to say
Dotplot
 Used with numerical data (either discrete or
continuous)
 Made by putting dots (or X’s) on a number
line
 Can make comparative dotplots by using
the same axis for multiple groups
Comparative Box-and-whisker plot
Stemplots (stem & leaf plots)
 Used with univariate, numerical data
 Must have
Would key sobethat
a stemplot we graph
a good knowfor
how
the to read
numbers
number of pieces of gun chewed per day by
AP Stat students? Why or why not?
 Can split stems when you have long list of
Would a stemplot be a good graph for the
leaves
number of pairs of shoes owned by AP Stat
 Can havestudents?
a comparative
Why or whystemplot
not? with two
groups
Stem-and-leaf Plots

• Back-to-back S & L : leaves still smallest to greatest

from left to right
• Make sure to make key when dealing with decimals
so that it is know where the decimal is located
Split Stem Example
Example:
The following data are price per ounce for various brands
of dandruff shampoo at a local grocery store.
0.32 0.21 0.29 0.54 0.17 0.28 0.36 0.23

Can you make a stemplot with this data?

Example: Tobacco use in G-rated Movies

Total tobacco exposure time (in seconds) for Disney

movies:
223 176 548 37 158 51 299 37
11 165 74 9 2 6 23 206
9

Total tobacco exposure time (in seconds) for other

studios’ movies:
205 162 6 1 117 5 91 155
24 55 17

Make a comparative stemplot.

Histograms
 Used with numerical data
Would
 Bars toucha histogram be a good graph for the
on histograms
 Twofastest speed driven by AP Stat students?
types
Why or why not?
Discrete
Bars are centered over discrete values
Continuous
Bars cover a class (interval) of values
Would a histogram be a good graph for the
 For comparative histograms – use two separate
number of pieces of gun chewed per day by
graphs
APwith
Statthe same scale
students? Whyon or the
whyhorizontal
not? axis