ENGINEERING DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 1.1: INTRODUCTION
Statistics is a group of methods used to collect, analyze, present,
and interpret data and to make decisions.
 Descriptive Statistics consists of methods for organizing,
displaying, and describing data by using tables, graphs, and
summary measures.
 Inferential Statistics consists of methods that use sample
results to help make decisions or predictions about a
population.
Population consists of all elements- individuals, items, or
objects- whose characteristics are being studied. The population
that is being studies is also called the target population.
Sample is a portion of the population selected for study.
Census is a survey that includes every member of the population.
Sample survey is the technique of collecting information from a
portion of the population.
Representative sample is a sample that represents the
characteristics of the population as closely as possible.
Random Sample is a sample drawn in such a way that each
element of the population has a chance of being selected.
 Simple random sampling is all samples of the same size
selected from a population have the same chance of being
selected.
Element or member of a sample or population is a specific
subject or object about which the information is collected.
Observation or measurement is the value of a variable for an
element.
Data set is a collection of observations on one or more variables.
Variable is a characteristic under study that assumes different
values for different elements. In contrast to a variable, the value
of a constant is fixed.
 Quantitative Variables are variables that can
be measured numerically.
 Discrete Variables- a variable whose values are
countable. It can assume only certain values
with no intermediate values.
 Continuous Variables- a variable that can
assume any numerical value over a certain
interval. (Height, weight, age)
 Qualitative Variables a variable that cannot
assume a numerical value but can be classified
into two or more nonnumeric categories.
Cross-section data are data collected on different
elements at the same time.
Time-series data are data collected on the same
element for the same variable at different time/period.
Data may be obtained from:
 Internal sources
 External sources
 Surveys and Experiments
CHAPTER 1.4: NUMERICAL DESCRIPTIVE MEASURES
MEAN FOR UNGROUPED DATA:
Mean for population data:
Mean for sample data:
Median is the value of the middle term in a data set
that has been ranked in increasing order. If there is an
even number of values in the data set, the median is
given by the average of the two middle values. The
median gives the center of a histogram, with half the
data values to the left of the median and half to the
right of the median. The advantage of using the median
as a measure of central tendency is that it is not
influenced by outliers. Consequently, the median is
preferred over the mean as a measure of central
tendency for data sets that contain outliers.
Mode is the value that occurs with the highest
frequency in a data set. Only advantage of the mode is
that it can be calculated for both kinds of data.
 Unimodal: A data set with only one mode
 Bimodal: A data set with two modes.
 Multimodal: A data set with more than 2 modes.
RELATIONSHIPS AMONG MEAN-MEDIAN-MODE
1. For a symmetric histogram and frequency curve
with one peak (Figure 3.2), the values of the mean,
median, and mode are identical, and they lie at the
center of the distribution.
2. For a histogram and a frequency curve skewed to
the right (Figure 3.3), the value of the mean is the
largest, that of the mode is the smallest, and the
value of the median lies between these two.
(Notice that the mode always occurs at the peak
point.) The value of the mean is the largest in this
case because it is sensitive to outliers that occur in
the right tail. These outliers pull the mean to the
right.
 3. If skewed to the left, the value of the mean is the smallest
and that of the mode is the largest, with the value of the
median lying between these two. In this case, the outliers
in the left tail pull the mean to the left.

MEASURES OF DISPERSION
 Range= largest value – smallest value
 Standard Deviation is the most used measure of
dispersion as it tells how closely the values of a data set
are clustered around the mean. For a population it is
denoted by σ and for the sample data it is denoted by s
.
 Lower value indicates that the value of that data
set is spread over a relatively smaller range around
the mean.
 Larger value indicates that the value of the data
set is spread over a relatively large range around
the mean.

 Variance calculated for population is denoted by σ 2 and

the variance calculated for sample data is denoted by s2
.

POPULATION PARAMETERS AND SAMPLE STATISTICS

Population parameters/parameter are numerical measures

such as the mean, median, mode, range, variance, or standard
deviation.

Sample statistic/statistic is a summary measure calculated for a

sample data.

MEAN FOR GROUPED DATA

VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION FOR GROUPED DATA