Descriptive Statistics for one variable

Statistics has two major chapters:

Descriptive Statistics Inferential statistics

Statistics
Descriptive Statistics Gives numerical and graphic procedures to summarize a collection of data in a clear and understandable way

Inferential Statistics Provides procedures to draw inferences about a population from a sample

Descriptive Measures
Central Tendency measures. They are
computed to give a center around which the measurements in the data are distributed.

Variation or Variability measures. They

describe data spread or how far away the measurements are from the center.

Relative Standing measures. They describe

the relative position of specific measurements in the data.

Measures of Central Tendency

Mean: Sum of all measurements divided by the number of measurements. Mean = x/n Median: A number such that at most half of the measurements are below it and at most half of the measurements are above it. Mode:
The most frequent measurement in the data.

Example of Mean
Measurements x
3 5 5 1 7 2 6 7 0 4 40

Deviation x - mean
-1 1 1 -3 3 -2 2 3 -4 0 0

MEAN = 40/10 = 4
Notice that the sum of the deviations is 0. Notice that every single observation intervenes in the computation of the mean.

Example of Median
Measurements Measurements Ranked x x 3 0 5 1 5 2 1 3 7 4 2 5 6 5 7 6 0 7 4 7 40 40

Median: (4+5)/2 = 4.5

Notice that only the two central values are used in the computation.

The median is not sensible to extreme values

Example of Mode
Measurements x 3 5 5 1 7 2 6 7 0 4

In this case the data have tow modes: 5 and 7 Both measurements are repeated twice

Example of Mode
Measurements x 3 5 1 1 4 7 3 8 3

Mode: 3

Notice that it is possible for a

data not to have any mode.

5 mins
Microsoft Word clipart

Find the mean, median and mode of the following data.

The weekly pocket money for 9 first year pupils was found to be:

3 12 4 6 1 4 2 5 8

Mean 5

Median 4

Mode 4

Variance (for a sample)

Steps:
Compute each deviation Square each deviation Sum all the squares Divide by the data size (sample size) minus one: n-1

Example of Variance
Measurements Deviations x 3 5 5 1 7 2 6 7 0 4 40 x - mean -1 1 1 -3 3 -2 2 3 -4 0 0 Square of deviations 1 1 1 9 9 4 4 9 16 0 54

Variance = 54/9 = 6
It is a measure of spread. Notice that the larger the deviations (positive or negative) the larger the variance

The standard deviation

It is defined as the square root of the variance In the previous example Variance = 6 Standard deviation = Square root of the variance = Square root of 6 = 2.45

 Sometimes the data we collect are in group form.

Slope Angle () 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 Total Midpoint (x) 2 7 12 17 22 Frequency (f) 6 12 7 5 0 n = 30 Midpoint x frequency (fx) 12 84 84 85 0 (fx) = 265

Groups of data

Finding the mean is slightly more difficult. We use the midpoint of the group and multiply this by the frequency.

Slope Angle () 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 Total

Midpoint (x) 2 7 12 17 22

Frequency (f) 6 12 7 5 0 n = 30

Midpoint x frequency (fx) 12 84 84 85 0 (fx) = 265

The mean is: (fx)/n =

265 / 30 =

8.8

Which is in the 5 9 group

Slope Angle () 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 Total

Midpoint (x) 2 7 12 17 22

Frequency (f) 6 12 7 5 0 n = 30

Midpoint x frequency (fx) 12 84 84 85 0 (fx) = 265

We cannot find the mode for grouped data but we can find the modal group. The modal group. The modal group is the group that occurs most frequently (ie: 5-9 group).