Lecture 4: Frequency distributions

September 15, 2022 (2nd week of classes)
Read and watch everything

Displaying numerical data in the form of frequency distributions: table and histograms & other visual aids to understand data.

Frequency distribution is a representation, either in a graphical or tabular format, that displays the number of observations within a given interval of a quantitative variable (continuous or discrete).

The intervals must be mutually exclusive (each observation can only belong to one interval) and exhaustive (all observations must be included), and the interval size depends on the data being analyzed and the goals of the analyst.

Frequency distributions are really important because they describe shapes of numerical variables (discrete or continuous). The shapes of these distributions allow us to determine proper population probability distributions for inferential statistics (i.e., use samples to estimate population parameters; & convey uncertainty). We will understand its importance in subsequent lectures. But rest assured, frequency distributions are key to statistics.

Dancing statistics: explaining the statistical concept of frequency distributions through dance, Information designer. A three minute film demonstrating the statistical concept of frequency distributions through dance.