DATA HANDLING
FUNDAMENTALS
The word 'statistics' is derived from the Latin word 'status' which means political state. Political states had to collect information about their citizens to facilitate governance and plan for development. Then, in course of time, statistics came to mean a branch of mathematics which deals with collection, classification, presentation and analysis of numerical data.
In this chapter, we shall learn about the classification of data, i.e., grouped data and ungrouped data, measures of central tendency, and their uses.
Data
The word 'data' means, information in the form of numerical figures or a set of given facts.
For example, the percentage of marks scored by 10 students of a class in a test are: 36, 80, 65, 75, 94, 48, 12, 64, 88 and 98.
Statistics is basically the study of numerical data. It includes methods of collection, classification, presentation, analysis of data and inferences from data. Data as can be qualitative or quantitative in nature. If one speaks of honesty- beauty, colour, etc., the data is qualitative, while height, weight, distance, marks, etc., are quantitative. Data can also be classified as: raw data, and grouped data.
Raw Data
Data obtained from direct observation is called raw data.
The marks obtained by 100 students in a monthly test are an example of raw data or ungrouped data.
In fact, little can be inferred from this data. However, arranging the marks in ascending order in the above example is a step towards making raw data more meaningful.
Grouped Data
To present the data in a more meaningful way, we condense the data into convenient number of classes or groups, generally not exceeding 10 and not less than 5. This helps us in perceiving at a glance, certain salient features of data.
Some Basic Definitions
Before getting into the details of tabular representation of data, let us review some basic definitions:
Observation: Each numerical figure in a data is called an observation.
Frequency: The number of times a particular observation occurs is called its frequency.
Tabulation or Presentation of Data
A systematical arrangement of the data in a tabular form is called 'tabulation' or 'presentation' of the data. This grouping results in a table called ''frequency table' that indicates the number of scores within each group.
Many conclusion about the characteristics of the data, the behavior of variable, etc., can be drawn from this table.
The quantitative data that is to be analyzed statistically can be divided into three categories:
Individual Series: Any raw data that is collected forms an individual series.
Example:
The weights of 10 students.
36, 35,32,40,65,48,54,71, 62 and 33
Percentage of marks scored by 10 students in a test:
46, 66, 96, 99, 90, 36, 81, 73, 59, 48
Discrete Series: A discrete series is formulated from raw data. Here, the frequency of the observations is taken into consideration.
Example: Given below is the data showing the
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