Click to view the Statistics Primer
This booklet provides a brief introduction to basic concepts in statistics.
The word statistics is used both to refer to a set of quantitative data and to
a field of study. Originally the word was used to designate collections of data
pertaining to matters of importance to a political state, such as population
counts, deaths, tax returns, and internal or external trade. The use of the word
statistics has been extended to include numerical observations of almost any
kind, from the statistics of major league baseball, to monthly rainfall totals, or
the numbers of computers of various kinds produced within a given period of
time.
Statistics as a field of study is the science and art of obtaining and analyzing
quantitative data in order to make sound inferences in the face of uncertainty.
The field includes the development and application of e¤ective methods for
obtaining and using quantitative data. Inductive reasoning, based on the math-
ematics of probability, is used to assess the fallibility of the estimate or test, and
the measure of the fallibility of the estimate or test is calculated from the observed
data.
Some phenomena that drove the development of statistics as a field of study
during the 20th century included new insights into its role in scientific research;
the exigencies of wars that focused attention on various practical applications of
the methods of statistics in military and industrial a¤airs; and changing notions
among scientists about the laws of energy and matter controlling the physical
universe.
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