Math 12-Elementary Statistics

What is this class about?

Is it even really a math class?

Statistics has two meanings:

1. Statistics refers to numerical facts.

2. Statistics is a group of methods for planning studies and experiments, obtaining data, and then organizing, analyzing, presenting, interpreting, and drawing conclusions and making predictions based on the data.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

~Benjamin Disraeli

Statistics is the critical thinking course for quantitative information.

Suppose we toss a coin 100 times

How many heads would you expect to get if the coin was fair?

If you got 55 heads, would you conclude that the coin was not fair?

If you got 95 heads, would you conclude that the coin was not fair?

If you got 75 heads, would you conclude that the coin was not fair?

We will study two main areas of Statistics:

Descriptive StatisticsMethods for organizing,displaying, and describingdata.

Inferential StatisticsMethods to make predictionsabout a population based on samples.

"Statistics: The only science that enables different experts

using the same figures to draw different conclusions."

~Evan Esar

 Capital   Low-case   Greek Name   English 

                 Alpha a

                Beta b

              Gamma g

              Delta d

             Epsilon e

              Zeta z

               Eta h

               Theta th

       Iota i

                Kappa k

               Lambda l

                  Mu m

                Nu n

              Xi x

               Omicron o

                 Pi p

              Rho r

               Sigma s

            Tau t

              Upsilon u

                Phi ph

                 Chi ch

                 Psi ps

                Omega o

The Greek Alphabet