AP Statistics: CH 1

Individuals

are the objects described by a set of data. Individuals may be people, animals, or things; what you are measuring

Variable

any characteristic of an individual; can take different values for different individuals; characteristic being measured

Categorical variable

places an individual into one of several groups or categories

Quantitative variable

takes numerical values for which it makes sense to find an average

Distribution

of a variable tells what values the variables takes and how often it takes these values; how often and where the data occurs

Inference

drawing conclusions that go beyond the data at hand; a conclusion about a larger population based on a sample

Statistics

the science of data, collection, summarization, and interpretation

Population

everyone who is being studied

Discreet

countable numbers; jump in increments

Continuous

numbers in between, such as length, weight, and time (ex. We can't have half a baby)

Frequency Table/Distribution

displays the counts (frequencies) of individuals in each format category

Relative Frequency Table/Distribution

the data that shows the percents (relative frequencies) of individuals in each format

Roundoff error

each percent is rounded to the nearest tenth; exact percents would add up to 100, but this only comes close; does not point to mistakes in our work, just to the effect of rounding errors

Two-way table

describes two categorical variables

Marginal distribution

the distribution of values of that variable among all individuals described by the table

Conditional Distribution

of a variable describes the values of that variable among individuals who have a specific value of another variable; there is a separate conditional distribution for each value of the other variable

Association

between two variables if specific values of one variable tend to occur in common with specific values of the other

Simpson's Paradox

An association between two variables that holds for each individual value of a third variable can be changed or even reversed when the data for all values of the third variable are combined

Dotplot

each data value is shown as a dot above its location on a number line

SOCS

Shape Outlier Center Spread

Symmetric

right and left sides of graph are approximately mirror images of each other

Skewed to the right

right side of graph is longer than left side

Skewed to the left

left side of graph is longer than right side

Unimodal

have a single peak distribution shape

Bimodal

have two clear peaks distribution shape

Multimodal

a distribution shape with more than two clear peaks

Stemplot

graphical display for small data sets

Mean

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x ; is the sample mean; from a set of observations, add their values and divide by the number of observations. If the n observations are x1, x2, ...., xn their mean is (the sum of oberservations) / n

Median

M ; the midpoint of a distribution, the number such that half the observations are smaller and the other half are larger

Interquartile range

(IQR) measures the range of the middle 50% of the data; IQR = Q3 - Q1

1.5 x IQR rule for outliers

Any values not falling between Q1 - 1.5 x IQR and Q3 + 1.5 x IQR are outliers

Five number summary

consist of the smallest observation, first quartile, median, third quartile, and largest observation; Minimum, Q1, M, Q3, Maximum

Resistant

relatively unaffected by extreme observations