Intro to statistics 1 - types of data and summary statistics

Question 1

What can statistics be used to objectively evaluate?

Answer 1

accuracy of estimates of means and population sizes
probability of differences or trends being other than just due to sampling error or natural variability

Question 2

What is a population? (statistics)

Answer 2

A set of similar items or events which are of interest for a specific question or experiment

Question 3

What 2 types of statistical population is there?

Answer 3

Group of actually existing objects
or
Hypothetical potentially infinite group of objects

Question 4

What is a sample? (statistics)

Answer 4

A set of data collected/selected from the population

Question 5

What can individual sample components be referred to as?

Answer 5

sample points, sampling units or observations

Question 6

What is probability?

Answer 6

The measure of likelihood for a specific event to occur based on statistical analysis of sample data.

Question 7

What is data? (statistics)

Answer 7

individual pieces of information used for statistical analysis, raw info which observations are collected

Question 8

What are the main types of data?

Answer 8

Discrete
Continuous
Catergorical

Question 9

What is discrete data?

Answer 9

Data/variables which only take a finite number of values and cannot
be subdivided

Question 10

What is an example of discrete data?

Answer 10

minerals in a rock sample

Question 11

What is continuous data?

Answer 11

Data/variables which can take an infinite number of values (data can be subdivided infinitely)

Question 12

What is an example of continuous data?

Answer 12

Height

Question 13

What is categorical data?

Answer 13

Data/variables which are mutually exclusive (i.e. can only have one state)

Question 14

What is an example of categorical data?

Answer 14

On or off

Question 15

What are the 2 categories of data?

Answer 15

Quantitative
Qualitative

Question 16

How can quantitative data be split?

Answer 16

Ratio
Interval

Question 17

How can qualitative data be split?

Answer 17

Nominal
Ordinal

Question 18

What is ratio data/ ratio scale?

Answer 18

Data with a defined, numeric scale AND with an absolute/natural zero (i.e., values cannot be negative)

Question 19

What is an example of ratio data/ ratio scale?

Answer 19

Weight (150g)

Question 20

What is interval data/ interval scale?

Answer 20

Data with a defined, numeric scale but WITHOUT an absolute zero (i.e., values can be positive, negative, and zero)

Question 21

What is an example of interval data/ interval scale?

Answer 21

Celsius scale

Question 22

What is nominal data/ nominal scale?

Answer 22

Discrete, mutually exclusive data with no numerical order/meaning

Question 23

What is an example of nominal data/ nominal scale?

Answer 23

Rock type (magmatic/ sedimentary)

Question 24

What is ordinal data/ ordinal scale?

Answer 24

Discrete, mutually exclusive data that can be ranked according to some characteristic

Question 25

How are units of measurement decided and by what system?

Answer 25

Determined by type of measurement System- systeme internationale d'unites 1948

Question 26

What is precision?

Answer 26

the variability of results (i.e. how close to each other repeated measures are)

Question 27

What is accuracy?

Answer 27

the closeness of results to the ‘true’ value

Question 28

What is the central tendency?

Answer 28

single value that attempts to describe and summarise a data set by identifying the central position within the data

Question 29

What is variance in data?

Answer 29

how the data are dispersed

Question 30

How is variance of a data set calculated?

Answer 30

calculated as the average of the squared differences from the mean.

Question 31

What is standard deviation? (variance)

Answer 31

The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. It indicates how much the data is spread on average

Question 32

How do you get the difference when calculating variance?

Answer 32

You must calculate the mean so you get the difference between the observed values and the average

Question 33

What is a sampling error?

Answer 33

The difference between the calculated mean and the true mean of the population

Question 34

What is frequency?

Answer 34

how often individual data values appear in the data set

Question 35

How is frequency data usually presented?

Answer 35

In a histogram

Question 36

What are examples of frequency and distribution?

Answer 36

Aggregated distribution Random distribution Even distribution

Question 37

What is aggregated distribution?

Answer 37

Population clumped in one area

Question 38

What is random distribution?

Answer 38

no set pattern to population distribution

Question 39

What is even distribution?

Answer 39

The population is equally distributed throughout the environment