MTH/231
August 29, 2012 Importance of Population and Sampling
History from Political Arithmetic to Statistics
The history timeline show evidence of statistical data as early as Ancient Greece time but records show statistics in late 16th century, when it was introduced by, John Graunt, William Petty, and Pascal and later in 17th century by Gottfried Achenwall. It was an exciting time when success and discoveries raised the confidence of scientists, physicist and astronomers to think that laws of nature are not of divine intervention. As the time evolved and new discoveries were attained from political arithmetic like, mortality demographics, census data, economy, and International Statistical Congresses, they all led to changing its name to ‘statistics’.
Population
Every 10 years the country conducts a census of population to provide data that can be of use for research, business marketing, planning, surveys, and different sampling. The first U.S. census took place in 1790. What is ‘population’? The common term “population” describes people that live in a town which is located in a certain region within a certain county or state and their respective characteristic such age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, or other. The statistic term
“population” consist of all members, elements of the defined group. It includes all subjects to be studied or collecting information on for data driven decisions. The basic population characteristics are birth, growth, aging, and death
Sample
In the effort of obtaining statistic data from population different factors are collected, analyzed, and summarized to come to a conclusion. To collect a certain data from the population a sample is performed. A part of the population is selected sometimes randomly with the same characteristics. The characteristics sample techniques are performed to save time, are suitable for different types of data or surveys, and saves money. The essential
References: Comparing a Population Mean to a Sample Mean (T-test) . (). Retrieved from http://www.acastat.com/Statbook/ttest1.htm History of Statistics – Timeline. (). Retrieved from http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/jpitocch/biostatstime.html