The Nature of Statistics

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Overview

  1. 1.1 Data Stories: The People Behind the Numbers
  2. 1.2 An Introduction to Statistics
  3. 1.3 Gathering Data
  4. Chapter 1 Vocabulary
  5. Chapter 1 Review Exercises
  6. Chapter 1 Quiz

1

Video Game Sales

Do you love to play video games? Have you ever played Minecraft? If you have, you are not alone. According to VGChartz.com, for the week of May 17, 2014, in the United States alone, video game lovers purchased 36,732 copies of Minecraft for the PS3 platform and 33,887 copies of Minecraft for the Xbox 360 platform. Let's face it: video games are fun, with today's technology delivering ever more realistic thrills and spills. And the video game industry continues to pump out new platforms, such as Xbox One, Wii U, and the PS4, that promise to offer superior performance. In this chapter, we will examine some data concerning video game sales in the United States for the week of May 17, 2014, provided by VGChartz.com (www.vgchartz.com/weekly/41777/USA/).

  • In Section 1.1, we examine an individual value plot of game sales, by platform, with the sales leaders highlighted (Hint: Minecraft is the overall leader).
  • In Section 1.2, we use the data set to learn about the types of variables we use in this book.
  • Finally, in Section 1.3, we use the data set to demonstrate random sampling. We hope you enjoy learning about statistics using this case study on video game sales.

THE BIG PICTURE

Where we are coming from and where we are headed …

  • The objective of Discovering Statistics is to help you understand how to analyze and interpret data and, thereby, become a successful citizen in the Information Age.
  • Chapter 1 introduces the basic ideas of the field of statistics and the methods for gathering data.
  • In Chapter 2, we will learn to summarize the data we have gathered using graphs and tables.