Lesson 1: The Big Picture

Overview Section

Toolbox

In this lesson, our primary aim is to get a big picture of the entire course that lies ahead of us. Along the way, we'll also learn some basic concepts to help us begin to build our probability tool box.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, you should be able to:

  • Learn the distinction between a population and a sample.
  • Learn how to define an outcome (sample) space.
  • Learn how to identify the different types of data: discrete, continuous, categorical, binary.
  • Learn how to summarize quantitative data graphically using a histogram.
  • Learn how statistical packages construct histograms for discrete data.
  • Learn how statistical packages construct histograms for continuous data.
  • Learn the distinction between frequency histograms, relative frequency histograms, and density histograms.
  • Learn how to "read" information from the three types of histograms.
  • Learn the big picture of the course, that is, put the material of sections 1 through 5 here on-line, and chapters 1 through 5 in the text, into a framework for the course.