Chapter 1: Introduction and Graphical Displays
5
Figure 1-1:
Breakdown of the subject of statistics
In order to deal with any aspect of the subject area of statistics we first must
gather information. As such,
data
must be collected from variables which
are used to describe an event or events or from variables which are used in
an experiment.
Definition: Data
Data are the values or measurements for variables which describe an event
or experiment.
Variables whose values are determined by chance are called
random
variables
. Random variables will be discussed in later chapters in this
e-book. Variables which are random or not can be classified into two broad
variable groups. These two variable groups are listed as
qualitative




