Page 25 - Statistics for Dummies

Chapter 1
Statistics in a Nutshell
In This Chapter
▶ Finding out what the process of statistics is all about
▶ Gaining success with statistics in your everyday life, your career, and in the classroom
he world today is overflowing with data to the point where anyone (even
Tme!) can be overwhelmed. I wouldn’t blame you if you were cynical right
now about statistics you read about in the media — I am too at times. The
good news is that while a great deal of misleading and incorrect information
is lying out there waiting for you, a lot of great stuff is also being produced;
for example, many studies and techniques involving data are helping improve
the quality of our lives. Your job is to be able to sort out the good from the
bad and be confident in your ability to do that. Through a strong understand-
ing of statistics and statistical procedures, you gain power and confidence
with numbers in your everyday life, in your job, and in the classroom. That’s
what this book is all about.
In this chapter, I give you an overview of the role statistics plays in today’s
data-packed society and what you can do to not only survive but thrive. You
get a much broader view of statistics as a partner in the scientific method —
designing effective studies, collecting good data, organizing and analyzing the
information, interpreting the results, and making appropriate conclusions.
(And you thought statistics was just number-crunching!)

Thriving in a Statistical World

It’s hard to get a handle on the flood of statistics that affect your daily life
in large and small ways. It begins the moment you wake up in the morning
and check the news and listen to the meteorologist give you her predictions
for the weather based on her statistical analyses of past data and present
weather conditions. You pore over nutritional information on the side of your

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