what is statistics is all about?

Question

Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data as well as drawing valid conclusions and making reasonable decisions on the basis of such analysis.

In a narrower sense the term is used to denote the data themselves or numbers derived from data as, for example, averages. Thus we speak of employment statistics, accident statistics, etc.

It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines from the physical and social sciences to the humanities, as well as to business, government, medicine and industry.

Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both descriptive and inferential statistics can be considered part of applied statistics. The discipline of mathematical statistics is concerned with the theoretical basis of the subject. The word statistics is also the plural of statistic (singular), which refers to the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a set of data.

Answer 1

The word statistics ultimately derives from the modern Latin term statisticum collegium ("council of state") and the Italian word statista ("statesman" or "politician"). The German Statistik, first introduced by Gottfried Achenwall (1749), originally designated the analysis of data about the state, signifying the "science of state" (then called political arithmetic in English). It acquired the meaning of the collection and classification of data generally in the early 19th century. It was introduced into English by Sir John Sinclair.

Thus, the original principal purpose of Statistik was data to be used by governmental and (often centralized) administrative bodies. The collection of data about states and localities continues, largely through national and international statistical services. In particular, censuses provide regular information about the population. During the 20th century, the creation of precise instruments for public health concerns (epidemiology, biostatistics, etc.) and economic and social purposes (unemployment rate, econometry, etc.) necessitated substantial advances in statistical practices. This became a necessity for Western welfare states developed after World War I which had to develop a specific knowledge of their "population". Philosophers such as Michel Foucault have argued that this constituted a form of "biopower", a term which has since been used by many other authors.

Statistics eventually merged with the more mathematically oriented field of inverse probability, referring to the estimation of a parameter from experimental data in the experimental sciences (most notably astronomy). Today the use of statistics has broadened far beyond the service of a state or government, to include such areas as business, natural and social sciences, and medicine, among others.

Statistics emerged in part from probability theory, which can be dated to the correspondence of Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal (1654). Christiaan Huygens (1657) gave the earliest known scientific treatment of the subject. Jakob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi (posthumous, 1713) and Abraham de Moivre's Doctrine of Chances (1718) treated the subject as a branch of mathematics. [1]

Answer 2

Having taken a number of university level statistics courses, I would tend to question any statistical results posted anywhere. There are so many vairables that for the most part, statistics are irrelevant in serving as an accurate predictor of much of anything. BB, Raji the Green Witch