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Quantitative Techniques – I

Notes (b) Inductive Statistics: It includes all those methods which are used to make
generalisations about a population on the basis of a sample. The techniques of
forecasting are also included in inductive statistics.
(c) Inferential Statistics: It includes all those methods which are used to test certain
hypotheses regarding characteristics of a population.

2. Applied Statistics: It consists of the application of statistical methods to practical problems.
Design of sample surveys, techniques of quality control, decision-making in business,
etc., are included in applied statistics.
1.1.2 Statistics as a Science or an Art

We have seen above that statistics is a science. Now we shall examine whether it is an art or not.
We know that science is a body of systematized knowledge. How this knowledge is to be used
for solving a problem is work of an art. In addition to this, art also helps in achieving certain
objectives and to identify merits and demerits of methods that could be used. Since statistics
possesses all these characteristics, it may be reasonable to say that it is also an art.
Thus, we conclude that since statistical methods are systematic and have general applications,
therefore, statistics is a science. Further since the successful application of these methods depends,
to a considerable degree, on the skill and experience of a statistician, therefore, statistics is an art
also.

Did u know? R.A. Fisher is a notable contributor to the field of statistics. His book ‘Statistical
Methods for Research Workers’, published in 1925, marks the beginning of the theory of
modern statistics.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions
1. Who gave the following definitions of statistics?
“Statistics is the science of counting”.
(a) Bowley (b) Boddington

(c) King (d) Saligman
2. “Statistics is the science of estimates and probabilities”.
(a) Webster (b) Secrist
(c) Boddington (d) Yule & Kendall

3. “The science of statistics is the method of judging collective, natural or social phenomena
from the results obtained by the analysis or enumeration or collection of estimates”.
(a) Achenwall (b) Marshall

(c) W.I. King (d) Croxton & Cowden

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