After you have studied probability and probability distributions, you will use formal methods for drawing conclusions from "good" data. The science of statistics deals with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data .

Organizing and summarizing data is called descriptive statistics . Two ways to summarize data are by graphing and by using numbers (for example, finding an average).

Data — a set of observations (a set of possible outcomes); most data can be put into two groups: qualitative (an attribute whose value is indicated by a label) or quantitative (an…. Statistic — a numerical characteristic of the sample; a statistic estimates the corresponding population parameter. Probability — a number between zero and one, inclusive, that gives the likelihood that a specific event will occur. Average — also called mean or arithmetic mean; a number that describes the central tendency of the data.