Descriptive Statistics
the summary of important aspects of a data set. (collecting data, organizing the data, presenting data)
Inferential Statistics
drawing conclusions about a large set of data called a population, but based on a smaller set of sample data.
Qualitative or Categorical
described in words rather than numbers. (gender, race, etc.)
Quantitative or Numerical
meaningful numerical values, and can be further categorized as either discrete or continuous.
Discrete
a countable number of distinct values (ex-number of students)
Continuous
takes on any value within an interval (ex-weight, height, test scores, etc.)
Nominal Scale
lowest level of measurement; naming or labeling (ex-persons name)
Ordinal Scale
includes nominal scale (categorizing) AND ranking (ex-college status)
Interval Scale
Stronger measurement scale, data that can be arranged in intervals where zero is meaningless. (ex-test scores, temperatures, passing score)
Ratio Scale
strongest measurement scale, data that can be calculated with values and zero is meaningful. (ex-profit, loss, sales, age, etc.)
Parameter
a constant characteristic of a population.
Statistic
a characteristic of a sample used to make inferences about an unknown population parameter.
Primary Source
you are collecting the data
Secondary Source
receiving data from another source
Which of the following variables is qualitative?
Gender
Which of the following variables is quantitative?
Temperature
Which of the following is a quantitative variable?
House age, size and price
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis won the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2007 with a total of 174 tackles. Tackles are measured on what kind of a scale? Is a variable measuring the number of tackles considered continuous or discrete?
Ratio scale, discrete
Which of the following variables is not continuous?
The number of obtained heads when a fair coin is tossed 20 times
The ordinal scale of data measurement is _____?
More sophisticated than the nominal scale
A recent survey of 200 small firms (annual revenue less than $10 million) asked whether an increase in the minimum wage would cause the firm to decrease capital spending. Possible responses to the survey question were: "yes", "no" or "don't know". This da
Nominal scale
An analyst collects data on the weekly closing price of gold throughout a year. The scale of this data is ______.
Ratio scale
The Fahrenheit scale for measuring temperature would be classified as ____.
Interval scale
What is the scale of measurement of the distance between any two locations?
Ratio scale
True or False: A frequency distribution for qualitative data groups this data into classes called intervals and records the total number of observations in each class.
False
A continuous random variable is characterized by uncountable values and can take on any value within an interval.
True