Statistics

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people who performed after a normal night's sleep. Is the difference real or could it be due to chance? How much larger could the real difference be than the 12 points? These are the types of questions answered by inferential statistics.
There are two main methods used in inferential statistics: estimation and hypothesis testing. In estimation, the sample is used to estimate a parameter and a confidence interval about the estimate is constructed.
In the most common use of hypothesis testing, a "straw man" null hypothesis is put forward and it is determined whether the data are strong enough to reject it. For the sleep deprivation study, the null hypothesis would be that sleep deprivation has no effect on performance.
The word "statistics" is used in several different senses. In the broadest sense, "statistics" refers to a range of techniques and procedures for analyzing data, interpreting data, displaying data, and making decisions based on data. This is what courses in ...

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of measurement and the appropriateness of various statistical procedures. For example, it would be silly to compute the mean of nominal measurements.

Frequency polygon

A frequency polygon is constructed from a frequency table. The intervals are shown on the X-axis and the number of scores in each interval is represented by the height of a point located above the middle of the interval. The points are connected so that together with the X-axis they form a polygon.

Arithmetic Mean

The arithmetic mean is what is commonly called the average: When the word "mean" is used without a modifier, it can be assumed that it refers to the arithmetic mean. The mean is the sum of all the ...

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