Definition Of Statistics

Statistics is a branch of applied mathematics concerned with collecting, organizing, and interpreting
data. The data are represented by means of graphs.

Statistics is also the mathematical study of the likelihood and probability of events occurring based on
known quantitative data or a collection of data.

Statistics, thus attempts to infer the properties of a large collection of data from inspection of a sample
of the collection thereby allowing educated guesses to be made with a minimum of expense.

There are basically three kinds of averages commonly used in statistics. They are: mean, median, and
mode.

Example of Statistics

A survey was conducted to find the favorite fruit of 100 people. The circle graph below shows

the results of the survey.

Solved Example on Statistics

Ques: What is the probability of getting two tails and one head, when 3 coins are tossed at a time?

Choices:

A. 13
B. 14
C.3/8
D. 17
Correct Answer: C

Solution:

Step 1: Number of possible outcomes when one coin is tossed = 2. [Outcomes are HeadHH and
TailTT.]
Step 2: The possible outcomes, when 3 coins are tossed are {TTT, THT, TTH, THH, HHT, HTH,
HTT, HHH}.
Step 3: Number of favorable outcomes = 3 [Favorable outcomes are THT, TTH, HTT.]

Step 4: [Substitute.]
Step 5: So, probability of getting two tails and one head is 3/8.
Definition Of Mean

Mean of a set of numbers is the sum of the numbers divided by the number of items in the list. Mean of

a set of n numbers a1, a2, a3, ..., an is given by

More About Mean

Mean can also be called as average or arithmetic mean.

Examples of Mean

In order to find the mean of 4, 5, 6, 3, and 7, first we have to add the numbers and then divide
the sum by the number of items.
4 + 5 + 6 + 3 + 7 = 25 i.e. the sum of the numbers is 25.

Mean = = = =5
So, the mean of the data set 4, 5, 6, 3, and 7 is 5.

Solved Example on Mean

Ques: Find the mean weight of the data set shown. 5 lb, 48 lb, 31 lb, 31 lb, 41 lb, 20 lb, 19 lb, 5 lb

Choices:

A. 27 lb
B. 25 lb
C. 26 lb
D. 24 lb
Correct Answer: B

Solution:

Step 1: Mean weight =

Step 2: Sum of the weights = 5 + 48 + 31 + 31 + 41 + 20 + 19 + 5
Step 3: = 200 lb [Add the weights.]
Step 4: Number of weights listed = 8

Step 5: Mean weight = = 25 lb [Substitute and simplify.]

Step 6: So, the mean weight of the data set is 25 lb.
Definition Of Median

Median is the middle data value of an ordered data set.

More About Median

If there are two middle values, then the median is the mean of the two numbers.
There will be two middle values when the number of values in the data set is even.

Examples of Median

12, 23, 8, 46, 5, 42, 19

Mean =
The median in the above data set is 19.

The median for the data set 2, 4, 7, 9, 3 is 4. 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 is the ascending order of the data set
2, 4, 7, 9, 3. The middle number in the ordered data set is 4.

Let us find the median of a data set with even number of items in it, e.g. 33, 30, 42, 22, 18, and
31.
Arranging the above data set in ascending order, we find 18, 22, 30, 31, 33, and 42.
The middle numbers from the above data set are 30 and 31. As there are two middle numbers
we have to find the mean of those numbers.

= = 30.5. So, 30.5 is the median middlevaluemiddlevalue of the data set 33, 30, 42,
22, 18, and 31.

Solved Example on Median

Ques: The given data shows the number of burgers sold at a bakery in the last 14 weeks.
17, 13, 18, 17, 13, 16, 18, 19, 17, 13, 16, 18, 20, 19
Find the median number of burgers sold.

Choices:

A. 18.5
B. 17
C. 18
D. 17.5
Correct Answer: B

Solution:

Step 1: 13, 13, 13, 16, 16, 17, 17, 17, 18, 18, 18, 19, 19, 20 [Arrange the data in increasing order.]
Step 2: Number of observations, n = 14.
Step 3: n is an even number.
Step 4: Median is the mean of the 7th and 8th observations in the ordered list.

Step 5: Median = = 17
Step 6: So, the median number of burgers sold is 17.
Definition Of Mode

Mode is a number that occurs most frequently in the data set.

More About Mode

The data set with more than one mode is called Multimodal.

Examples of Mode

In the given line plot, most number of cross 44 are shown against 20. So 20 is the mode of the
given line plot.
The mode of the set M, S, R, S, S, M, M, R, M, R is M, as M is occurred more frequently than S and
R.
60, 55, 59, 56, 61, 62, 62, 62, 57, 61
60 in the data set occur only once.
55 in the data set occur only once.
59 in the data set occur only once.
56 in the data set occur only once.
61 in the data set occur twice.
62 in the data set occur thrice.
57 in the data set occur only once.
So, the mode for the above data set is 62 as it occurred most frequently.
Solved Example on Mode

Ques: The data shown below are the weights inpoundsinpounds of different vegetables that Ashley
bought.
16, 11, 14, 16, 7, 16, 14, 11, 16, What is the mode of the data?
Choices:

A. 11
B. 7
C. 16
D. 14
Correct Answer: C

Solution:

Step 1: The number that occurs most frequently in a data set is called the mode.
Step 2: 16, 11, 14, 16, 7, 16, 14, 11, 16 [Original scores.]
Step 3: Since the number 16 appears four times, the mode of the data set is 16.
Definition Of Variance

Variance is a statistical measure that tells us how measured data vary from the average value of the
set of data.

In other words, variance is the mean of the squares of the deviations from the arithmetic mean of a
data set.

More About Variance

Variance is the square of the standard deviation.

The formula for variance is

Solved Example on Variance

Ques: Find the variance of the data set {1, 2, 3, 4, 10}.

Choices:

A. 10
B. 9
C. 8
D. 7
Correct Answer: A

Solution:

tep 1: The mean of the data set {1, 2, 3, 4, 10} is [Use the formula for
mean.]
Step 2: The standard deviation of the data set is

[Use the formula for mean.]

Step 3:
Step 4: The variance of the data set is [Substitute ]
Definition Of Standard Deviation

The standard deviation is defined as the average amount by which individual data items in a data set
differ from the arithmetic mean of all the data in the set.
The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. It is denoted by the symbol .

More About Standard Deviation

If a set of data has n values and if represents the mean of the data set, then

the standard deviation is given by:

Example of Standard Deviation

If electricity bills in dollars of 8 houses are 70, 82, 76, 79, 83, 85, 72, 77 and mean is 78 then
find the standard deviation.

Standard deviation

Solved Example on Standard Deviation

Ques: A survey conducted by an automobile company showed the number of cars per household and
the corresponding probabilities. Find the standard deviation.

Choices:

A. 4.24
B. 0.63
C. 0.79
D. 1.9
Correct Answer: C
Solution:

Step 1: Representing the data in the table and compute X .PXX and X2 . PXX

Step 2: From the table, we get

Step 3:

Step 4: Variance
Step 5: Variance
Step 6: Standard deviation
Step 7: So, the standard deviation is 0.79.
Deciles (Measures of Positions)

The deciles are the values (nine in numbers) of the variable that divide an ordered (sorted, arranged)
data set into ten equal parts so that each part represents 1/10 of the sample or population. Deciles are
denoted by D1, D2, D3,…D10, where First decile (D1) is the value of order statistics that exceeds 1/10 of
the observations and less than the remaining 9/10 and the D9 (ninth decile) is the value in order
statistic that exceeds 9/10 of the observations and is less than 1/10 remaining observations. Note that
the fifth deciles is equal to median. The deciles determine the values for 10%, 20%… and 90% of the
data.

Calculating Deciles for ungrouped Data

To calculate deciles for the ungrouped data, first order the all observation according to the
magnitudes of the values, then use the following formula for mth decile.

\[D_m= m \times \left( \frac{(n+1)}{10} \right) \mbox{th value; } \qquad \mbox{where}

m=1,2,\cdots,9\]

Example: Calculate 2nd and 8th deciles of following ordered data 13, 13,13, 20, 26, 27, 31, 34, 34, 34,
35, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 41, 41, 45, 47, 47, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54, 56, 62, 67, 82.
Solution:
\begin{eqnarray*}
D_m &=&m \times \{\frac{(n+1)}{10} \} \mbox{th value}\\
&=& 2 \times \frac{30+1}{10}=6.2\\
\end{eqnarray*}

We have to locate the sixth value in the ordered array and then have to more 0.2 of the distance
between the sixth and seventh values. i.e. the value of 2nd decile can be calculated as
\[6 \mbox{th observation} + \{7 \mbox{th observation} – 6 \mbox{th observation} \}\times 0.2\]
as 6th observation is 27 and 7th observation is 31.
The second decile would be $27+\{31-27\} \times 0.2 = 27.8$

Similarly D8 can be calculated. D8 = 52.6.

Calculating Deciles for grouped Data

The mth decile for grouped data (in ascending order) can be calculated from the following formula.

\[D_m=l+\frac{h}{f}\left(\frac{m.n}{10}-c\right)\]

where

l = is the lower class boundary of the class containing mth deciles

h = is the width of the class containing mth deciles
f = is the frequency of the class containing mth deciles
n = is the total number of frequencies
c = is the cumulative frequency of the class preceding to the class containing mth deciles

Example: Calculate the first and third deciles of the following grouped data
 Solution: Deciles class for D1 can be calculated from
$\left(\frac{m.n}{10}-c\right) = \frac{1 \times 30}{10} = 3$rd observation. As 3rd observation lie in
first class (first group) so

\begin{eqnarray*}
D_m&=&l+\frac{h}{f}\left(\frac{m.n}{10}-c\right)\\
D_1&=&85.5+\frac{5}{6}\left(\frac{1\times30}{10}-0\right)\\
&=&88\\
\end{eqnarray*}

Deciles class for D7 is 100.5—105.5 as $\frac{7 \times 30}{10}=21$th observation which is in fourth
class (group).
\begin{eqnarray*}
D_m&=&l+\frac{h}{f}\left(\frac{m.n}{10}-c\right)\\
D_7&=&100.5+\frac{5}{6}\left(\frac{7\times30}{10}-20\right)\\
&=&101.333\\
\end{eqnarray*}
Definition Of Quartiles

Quartiles are values that divide a set of data into four equal parts.

More About Quartiles

A data set has three quartiles: the lower quartile, the median of the data set, and the upper
quartile
Median: The median divides a data set into two equal parts.
Lower quartile: Median of the lower half of the data.
Upper quartile: Median of the upper half of the data.

Examples of Quartiles

The owner of a super market recorded the number of customers who came into his store each
hour in a day.
The results were 12, 8, 10, 7, 15, 3, 6, 7, 12, 8, and 9.
The ascending order of the data is 3, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 12, 12, 15.
The lower quartile is 7, the median is 8, and the upper quartile is 12.

Solved Example on Quartiles

Ques: What is the product of all the three quartiles of the box-and-whisker plot shown?

Choices:

A. 2,050
B. 2,431
C. 1,234
D. 41
Correct Answer: B

Solution:

Step 1: The middle quartile = 13 and the upper quartile = 17.

Step 2: The product of all the three quartiles
= lower quartile × middle quartile × upper quartile
= 11 × 13 × 17 = 2,431 [Multiply.]

“Percentile” is in everyday use, but there is no universal definition for it. The most common definition
of a percentile is a number where a certain percentage of scores fall below that number. You might
know that you scored 67 out of 90 on a test. But that figure has no real meaning unless you know what
percentile you fall into. If you know that your score is in the 90th percentile, that means you scored
better than 90% of people who took the test.
Percentiles are commonly used to report scores in tests, like the SAT, GRE and LSAT. for example, the
70th percentile on the 2013 GRE was 156. That means if you scored 156 on the exam, your score was
better than 70 percent of test takers.

Sample question: Find out where the 25th percentile is in the above list.
Step 1: Calculate what rank is at the 25th percentile. Use the following formula:
Rank = Percentile / 100 * (number of items + 1)
Rank = 25 / 100 * (8 + 1) = 0.25 * 9 = 2.25.
A rank of 2.25 is at the 25th percentile. However, there isn’t a rank of 2.25 (ever heard of a high school
rank of 2.25? I haven’t!), so you must either round up, or round down. As 2.25 is closer to 2 than 3, I’m
going to round down to a rank of 2.
Step 2: Choose either definition 1 or 2:
Definition 1: The lowest score that is greater than 25% of the scores. That equals a score of 43 on this list
(a rank of 3).
Definition 2: The smallest score that is greater than or equal to 25% of the scores. That equals a score of
33 on this list (a rank of 2).

Depending on which definition you use, the 25th percentile could be reported at 33 or 43! A third
definition attempts to correct this possible misinterpretation:

Definition 3: A weighted mean of the percentiles from the first two definitions.

In the above example, here’s how the percentile would be worked out using the weighted mean:

Multiply the difference between the scores by 0.25 (the fraction of the rank we calculated above). The
scores were 43 and 33, giving us a difference of 10:
(0.25)(43 – 33) = 2.5

Add the result to the lower score. 2.5 + 33 = 35.5

In this case, the 25th percentile score is 35.5, which makes more sense as it’s in the middle of 43 and 33.

In most cases, the percentile is usually definition #1. However, it would be wise to double check that any
statistics about percentiles are created using that first definition.