GOALS When you have completed this chapter you will be able to: Understand why we study statistics. Explain what is meant by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Distinguish between a qualitative variable and a quantitative variable. Describe how a discrete variable is different from a continuous variable. Distinguish among the nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels of measurement.
|
 <![CDATA[<a onClick="window.open('/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=jpg::::/sites/dl/free/0073030228/Lin30228_p0101.jpg','popWin', 'width=NaN,height=NaN,resizable,scrollbars');" href="#"><img valign="absmiddle" height="16" width="16" border="0" src="/olcweb/styles/shared/linkicons/image.gif"> (K)</a>]]>
Photo for Apple by Court Mast Photography / PRNewsFoto/Apple Computer, Inc. / AP / Wide World Photos
You are shopping for a new MP3 music player such as the Apple iPod. The manufacturers advertise the number of music tracks that can be stored in the memory. You, however, like Broadway musical tunes, which are much longer. You would like to estimate how many Broadway tunes will fit on your MP3 player. Would you collect information using a sample of a population? Why? (See Exercise 8d and Goal 2.) |
