- Create questions that can be answered with statistics
- Name and classify variables by type
What is a Good Statistical Question?
A statistical question anticipates variability in data collected from many individuals to answer the question.
The individuals we collect information from (data) are called observational units and each piece of information we collect from the individuals is called a variable.
A good statistical question anticipates that the variables recorded will vary from individual to individual.
Categorical and Quantitative Variables
The object of our question is called the variable.
Categorical variables are described using words (or unique identifiers like a ZIP code that contain numbers but act like a word).
Quantitative variables are described using numbers that can be summed up or averaged.
- Discrete quantitative variables must be counted only in whole numbers.
- Continuous quantitative variables can take on any number, or any number in between.