Computers
Using Excel for Statistical Analysis - Terms You Should Understand Before You Start by Stephen Nelson
[Apr 24, 2008]
Excel provides an almost countless number of statistical tools you can use to analyze data and make meaningful statements about it. However, without understanding the definitions of the statistical terms that Excel uses, the statistical tools offer little help.
Accordingly, this article supplies some background information about Excel's statistical tools and also defines the important statistical terms used by Excel.
Distinguishing between types of data
The science of statistics makes a fundamental distinction between two types of data sets, population data and sample data. A population is the set of all elements of interest, while a sample is a subset of that population, drawn to make inferences about the characteristics of the population.
For example, if you want to describe the average number of televisions in American households, you can't possibly collect data for the entire population (all American households). Instead, you must draw a sample from the population and make an estimate about the whole population based on that sample.