Chapter 2- Descriptive Statistics

Frequency distribution

a table that shows classes or intervals of data entries with a count of the number of entries in each class

Frequency

the number of data entries in the class

Class width

the distance between lower (or upper) limits of consecutive classes

Range

the difference between the maximum and minimum data entries

Midpoint

the sum of the lower and upper limits of a class divided by two

Relative frequency

the portion, or percentage, of the data that falls in that class

Cumulative frequency

the sum of the frequencies of that class and all previous classes

Frequency histogram

a bar graph that represents the frequency distribution of a data set

Class boundaries

the numbers that separate classes without forming gaps between them

Frequency polygon

a line graph that emphasizes the continuous change in frequencies

Ogive

a line graph that displays the cumulative frequency of each class at its upper class boundary

Measure of central tendency

a value that represents a typical, or central, entry of a data set

Mean

the sum of data entries divided by the number of entries

Median

the value that lies in the middle of the data when the data set is ordered

Mode

the data entry that occurs with the greatest frequency

Outlier

a data entry that is far removed from the other entries in the set

Weighted mean

the mean of a data set whose entries have varying weights

Symmetric

when a vertical line can be drawn through the middle of the graph of the distribution and the resulting halves are approximately mirror images

Uniform

when all entries in the distribution have equal or approximately equal frequencies

Skewed

when the "tail" of the graph elongates more to one said than to the other

Deviation

the difference between the entry and the mean of the data set

Coefficient of variation

describes the standard deviation as a percent of the mean

Z-score

the number of standard deviations a value x lies from the mean