Definitions

Definitions for our class

As we progress through the course, we can add definitions of terms that come up during class discussion. If you use a definition from the text, include the page number. If you take it from any other source, include a reference.

Variables are any characteristics that can be assigned to a number or category. I suggest deleting "to" as variables are not assigned **to** numbers or categories rather the numbers or categories are assigned **to** the variable. Do you see the difference? Dr B

COUNT- Numerical category that involves no measurements or of partial units. Your age could be considered a measure of time but we typically report it as a whole number so measures could be count variables; we just don't want to include partial units. Dr B

MEASUREMENT- Numerical data involving measurement or partial units.

CATEGORY- categorical data.

DATA- The outcomes that respond to a variable FREQUENCY- NOT THE DATA!! the amount or occurrence that a certain piece of data takes place.

PICTURE GRAPH- Uses drawings or other pictorial representations of the objects under investigation (or the variable of interest) to represent a count of the objects involved. Pg 14

MULTI-BAR GRAPH- A graph that makes comparisons among different groups. Pg 16

BACK-TO-BACK BAR GRAPH- A graph that compares //binary// categorical data. (Only two possible response categories) Pg 16

STACKED BAR GRAPH- A graph that shows data in a relative "part-to-whole" perspective where each individual segment represents a particular part and all segments combined make up the whole. Pg 18

=Measures of Center:= (Dr B edited)
 * 1) Mode= the **data value** that happens the most
 * 2) Median= the middle **data value** (when in order)
 * 3) Mean= evening o ut (a.k.a Fair sharing)

__**Range:**__ Spread from smallest to largest (Lowest to highest, minimum to maximum, etc) **Range** is represented in a single number. For example 56-90 is the interval but to find the range you need to find the difference between the two. So the **range** would be 34.


 * Experiment-** any activity where an observation or measurement can be made and recorded as data.(pg150)


 * Outcome-** one of the possible results from the experiment. (pg 150)


 * Outcome set/ Sample space-** the set of all possible outcomes. (pg 150)


 * Probability of an outcome-** the number assigned to measure the likelihood of an outcome. (pg 150)


 * Experimental Probability-** the probablilities of the outcomes associated with an experiment that are computed by the relative frequency of occurance for each of the outcomes over many trials of the experiment. (pg 157)


 * Theoretical Probability-** the specific value that a relative frequency associated with a particular outcome tends to approach and stabalize at as the number of conducted trials of an experiment increases. (pg 157)