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Unit 1: Statistics

19. Statistics is like a .................... key that is used to solve problems of mankind in every field. Notes
20. Businessman might face a situation of ......................... investment opportunities in which
he can lose or gain.

Case Study Statistics as a Science different from Natural Sciences

cience is a body of systematized knowledge developed by generalisations of relations
based on the study of cause and effect. These generalised relations are also called the
Slaws of science. For example, there are laws in physics, chemistry, statistics,
mathematics, etc. It is obvious from this that statistics is also a science like any other
natural science. The basic difference between statistics and other natural sciences lies in
the difference in conditions under which its experiments are conducted. Where as the
experiments in natural sciences are done in laboratory, under more or less controlled
conditions, the experiments in statistics are conducted under uncontrolled conditions.
Consider, for example, the collection of data regarding expenditure of households in a
locality. There may be a large number of factors affecting expenditure and some of these
factors might be different for different households.
Due to these reasons, statistics is often termed as a non-experimental science while natural
sciences are termed as experimental sciences. We may note here that social sciences like
economics, business, sociology, geography, political science, etc., belong to the category
of non-experimental science and thus, the laws and methods of statistics can be used to
understand and analyse the problems of these sciences also.
Questions:

1. Analyze the case and interpret it.
2. Write down the case facts.
3. What do you conclude?

1.5 Summary

The word ‘Statistics’ can be used in both ‘the plural’ and ‘the singular’ sense.
In plural sense it implies a set of numerical figures, commonly known as statistical data.

In singular sense statistics implies a scientific method used for the collection, analysis and
interpretation of data.
Any set of numerical figures cannot be regarded as statistics or data. A set of numerical
figures collected for the investigation of a given problem can be regarded as data only if
these are comparable and affected by a multiplicity of factors.
As a scientific method, statistics is used in almost every subject of natural and social
sciences.

Statistics as a method can be divided into two broad categories viz. Theoretical Statistics
and Applied Statistics.
Theoretical statistics can further be divided into Descriptive, Inductive and Inferential
statistics.

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