Chapter 2: Descriptive Statistics

Overview

This chapter introduces how to describe the center and spread (variation) of a distribution using descriptive measures. The measures for the center covered in this chapter are median, mean, and mode. The measures for the variation are range, interquartile range, and standard deviation.

Learning Objectives

As a result of completing this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

  • Choose proper measures to describe the center and spread (variation) of a distribution.
  • Calculate the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range, and interquartile range of the given data, if applicable.
  • Calculate the quartiles and five-number summary of the data.
  • Draw a boxplot for the given data.
  • Explain the meaning of a z-score.

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Introduction to Applied Statistics Copyright © 2024 by Wanhua Su is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.