Chapter 1

Introduction
Statistics is the science
of collecting, organizing,
presenting, analyzing,
and interpreting
numerical data to assist
in making more
effective decisions.

What is Meant by
Statistics?
Statistical techniques are
used broadly by
marketing, accounting,
quality control,
consumers, professional
sports people, hospital
administrators,
educators, politicians,
physicians, and many
others.

Who Uses Statistics?

A Population A Sample is a
is collection of all portion, or part,
possible
of the population
individuals,
objects, or of interest
measurements of
interest.

Two important terms used

in the study of Statistics
Descriptive Statistics: Methods of organizing,
summarizing, and presenting data in an informative way.

EXAMPLE : According to the

data of General Electric, it
reported that the production of
washing machine from 2003 to
2007 were 1,000 , 1,200 , 1,300 ,
1400 and 1,500.
Inductive Statistics: A decision, estimate,
prediction, or generalization about a population, based on
a sample.
Types of Statistics
 Types of Data

DATA

Qualitative, categorical
or attribute Quantitative or numerical
(non numerical)

discrete continuous
(counts) (measurements)

The number of hammers The weight of a nugget

There are four levels of
data
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

Levels of
Measurement
Nominal level
Data that is
classified into
categories and
cannot be arranged
in any particular
order.

Levels of
measurement
Ordinal level: involves data arranged in some
order and usually inequality signs can be used

During a taste test

of 4 soft drinks,
Coca Cola was
ranked number 1,
Dr. Pepper number
2, Pepsi number 3,
and Root Beer
number 4.
Levels of
Measurement
 Interval level
Similar to the ordinal level, with the additional
property that meaningful amounts of differences
between data values can be determined. There is no
natural zero point.

Temperature on the
Fahrenheit scale.

Levels of
Measurement
Ratio level: the highest level of data.
Meaningful ratio between value. In addition, it
resulted in a pure or distance number and it is not
expressed in units

Levels of
Measurement
Practice
■ Suppose that we are given complete
information about the number of patients
admitted and the length of their stays at a
certain hospital during a certain year. Give
one example each of problems in which
we would consider this set of data to be
a. population
b. sample
Practice
■ In the years 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, Medan had 1.4 , 1.6, 1.8,
2.0 millions population. During the same year, Binjai (in million) 0.6,
0.7, 0.9, and 1.0 population. Which of the following conclusions can
be obtained from these figures by purely descriptive methods and
which require generalizations (inductive statistics)?
a. Medan’s populations grew to 2 (millions) from
the year 2004 to 2007.
b. Binjai’s populations increased from the year 2004 to
2007.
c. Medan’s populations will exceed 3.0 millions within the next 5
years.
d. From these two cities, populations in Binjai are lesser than the
populations in Medan.
e. Population rates in Medan must have been about 20% less in the
year of 1998 than it was in 2004.
Practice
■ The “Brastagi” fruit store has asked you for
information about apples that you bought. For
each question, identify each types of data
requested as either categorical data or numerical
data. When numeric data, identify the variable as
discrete or continuous.
1. What is the weight of the apples?
2. In what country this apples are imported?
3. What’s the color of your apples?
4. How many apples that you bought?
Practice
■ What is the level of measurements for each of the
following variables?
1. Subjects that being taught in IT&B
campus, like Accounting, Marketing,
Statistics and Organizational Behavior.
2. Students IQ ratings.
3. Number of hours employees work per week.
4. Three largest corporations ranked by
sales (Toyota, Honda, and Suzuki).
5. Male employees pants size
Assignments
■ Which of the each following variables can
be classify to quantitative or qualitative.
a. Age
b. Gender
c. Class rank
d. Martial Status
Assignments
■ What is the level of measurement for each
of the following variables?
a. The number of papers sold each
Sunday during 2004
b. The departments, such as editorial,
advertising, sports, etc
c. Student’s money for a week
d. Barcelona’s Temperature
Assignments
■ Developer of Cemara Asri invited a sample of
258 people to look at the newly build types of
villa. Of the 258 sample, 180 said that they
would purchase the villa if it is marketed
a. What could Developer of Cemara Asri report
regarding acceptance of the villa?
b. Is this an example of descriptive statistics or
inferential statistics? Explain.