1.3 Fundamental Elements of Statistics
Statistical methods are particularly useful for studying, analyzing, and learning about populations of experimental units.
An experimental (or observational) unit is an object (e.g., person, thing, transaction, or event) about which we collect data.
A population is a set of all units (usually people, objects, transactions, or events) that we are interested in studying.
For example, populations may include (1) all employed workers in the United States, (2) all registered voters in California, (3) everyone who is afflicted with AIDS, (4) all the cars produced last year by a particular assembly line, (5) the entire stock of spare parts available at Southwest Airlines’ maintenance facility, (6) all sales ...
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