History of statistics and its significance

History of statistics and its significance History of Statistics and its Significance Statistics is a relatively new subject, which branched from Probability Theory and is widely used in areas such as Economics and Astrology. It is a logic and methodology to measure uncertainty and it is used to do inferences on these uncertainties (Stigler, 1986). The history of Statistics can be firstly traced back to the 1600s. John Graunt (1620-1674) could be considered as the pioneer of statistics and as the author of the first book regarding statistics. He published Natural and Political observations on the Bills of Mortality in 1662 whereby he was studying the plague outbreak in London at the time requested by the King. Graunt was asked to come up with a system that would allow them to detect threats of further outbreaks, by keeping records of mortality and causes of death and making an estimation of the population. By forming the life table, Graunt discovered that statistically, the ratio of male to females are almost equal. Then in 1666, he collected data and started to exami ne life expectancies. All of this was fundamental as he was arguably the first to create a condensed life table from large data and was able to do some analysis on it. In addition, this is widely used in life insurance today, showing the importance and significance of Graunts work (Verduin, 2009). Another reason why this is significant is because of his ability in demonstrating the value of data collection (Stigler, 1986). Then in 1693, Edmond Halley extended Graunts ideas and formed the first mortality table that statistically made the relationship between age and death rates. Again, this is used in life insurance (Verduin, 2009). Another contributor to the formation of statistics is Abraham De Moivre (1667-1823). He was the first person to identify the properties of the normal curve and in 1711, introduced the notion of statistical independence (Verduin, 2009). In 1724, De Moivre studied mortality statistics and laid down foundations of the theory of annuities, inspired by the work of Halley. This is significant as annuities are widely used in the Finance industry today, in particular, when forming actuarial tables in life insurance. De Moivre then went on to talk about the idea of the normal distribution which can be used to approximate the binomial distribution (OConnor and Robertson, 2004). William Playfair (1759-1823) was the person who invented statistical graphics, which included the line graph and the bar graph chart in 1786 and the pie chart in 1801. He believed that charts were a better way to represent data and he was driven to this invention by a lack of data. This was a milestone as these graphical representations are used everywhere today, the most notable being the time-series graph, which is a graph containing many data points measured at successive uniform intervals over a period of time. These graphs can be used to examine data such as shares, and could be used to predict future data (Robyn 1978). Adolphe Quetlet (1796-1874) was the first person to apply probability and statistics to Social Sciences in 1835. He was interested in studying about human characteristics and suggested that the law of errors, which are commonly used in Astronomy, could be applied when studying people and through this, assumptions or predictions could be in regards to physical features and intellectual features of a person. Through Quetlets studies, he discovered that the distribution of certain characteristics when he made a diagram of it was in a shape of a bell curve. This was a significant discovery as Quetlet later went on to form properties of the normal distribution curve, which is a vital concept in Statistics today. Using this concept of average man, Quetlet used this to examine other social issues such as crime rates and marriage rates. He is also well known for the coming up with a formula called the Quetlet Index, or more commonly known as Body Mass Index, which is an indication or measure for obesity. This is still used today and you could find out your BMI by calculating. If you get an index of more than 30, it means the person is officially obese (OConnor and Robertson, 2006). Other members who made little but significance contributions to Statistics are Carl Gauss and Florence Nightingale. Gauss was the first person who played around with the least squares estimation method when he was interested in astronomy and attempted to predict the position of a planet. He later proved this method by assuming the errors are normally distributed. The method of least squares is widely used today, in Astronomy for example, in order to minimise the error and improve the accuracy of results or calculations (OConnor and Robertson, 1996). It was also the most commonly used method before 1827 when trying to combine inconsistent equations (Stigler, 1986). Nightingale was inspired by Quetlets work on statistical graphics and produced a chart detailing the deaths of soldiers where she worked. She later went on to analyse that state and care of medical facilities in India. This was significant as Nightingale applied statistics to health problems and this led to the improvement of medical healthcare. Her important works were recognised as became the first female to be a member of the Royal Statistical Society (Cohen, 1984). One of the greatest contributors was Francis Galton (1822-1911) who helped create a statistical revolution which laid foundations for future statisticians like Karl Pearson and Charles Spearman (Stigler, 1986). He was related to Charles Darwin and had many interests, such as Eugenics and Anthropology. He came up with a number of vital concepts, including the regression, standard deviation and correlation, which came about when Galton was studying sweet peas. He discovered that the successive sweet peas were of different sizes but regressed towards the mean size and the distribution of their parents (Gavan Tredoux, 2007). He later went on to work with the idea of correlation when he was studying the heights of parents and the parents children when they reach adulthood, where he made a diagram of his findings and found an obvious correlation between the two. He then performed a few other experiments and came to the conclusion that the index of the correlation was an indication to the d egree in which the two variables were related to one another. His studies were significant as they are all fundamental in Statistics today and these methods are used in many areas for data analysis, especially with extracting meaningful information between different factors (OConnor and Robertson, 2003). The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900 Stephen M Stigelr Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, March 1, 1990 p1, 4, 40, 266 http://www.leidenuniv.nl/fsw/verduin/stathist/stathist.htm A short History of Probability and Statistics Kees Verduin Last Updated: March 2009 Last Accessed: 02/04/2010 http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/De_Moivre.html The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive Article by: J J OConnor and E F Robertson Copyright June 2004 Last Accessed: 05/04/2010 The American Statistician Volume: 32, No: 1 Quantitative graphics in statistics: A brief history James R. Beniger and Dorothy L. Robyn p1-11 http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Quetelet.html The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive Article by: J J OConnor and E F Robertson Copyright August 2006 Last Accessed: 06/04/2010 http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Gauss.html The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive Article by: J J OConnor and E F Robertson Copyright December 1996 Last Accessed: 06/04/2010 Scientific American 250 Florence Nightingale I. Bernard Cohen March 1984, p128-37/p98-107depending on country of sale http://galton.org/ Francis Galton Edited and Maintained by: Gavan Tredoux Last Updated: 12/11/07 (according to the update in News section) Last Accessed: 07/04/2010 http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Galton.html The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive Article by: J J OConnor and E F Robertson Copyright October 2003 Last Accessed: 07/04/2010

Modern Day Hero Essay

When you head the word ‘hero’ most people picture a buff man, wearing a cape; like Superman and Batman. A hero can be anyone from a family member to someone in the community. I believe my mother can be portrayed as a hero. She volunteers in her spare time, is a teacher, and is a friend to everyone she meets. My mother has a tendency to volunteer for anything, but it’s usually within the school she works at. Before we moved here, she was head of the P.T.A., always finding ways to raise money for the school. She even got a new playground for the school so the kids could enjoy recess without having to worry about injuries. She has also organized many walk-a-thons for kids with Autism at her school. She takes action and is really god in what she does. My mother is also a teacher. She teaches kids with Autism, which I think is great. Especially because she has a lot of patience with those kids. She teaches each kids one-on-one, at their own pace. She takes her time to make sure that each student has an understanding of what is going on. She also makes a connection to her students’ families, and makes sure the parents are involved with their child. She is really good at what she does. My mother can befriend anyone she meets. You can be a complete stranger and she will compliment you, no matter what. This one time we were at shopping at the mall when we saw this lady drop $100 on the floor. My initial thought was to keep it, but then my mother picked it up and gave it back to the lady. In return, the lady brought us all a coffee. Leason being, what goes around comes around. Most people think of hero’s as someone famous and important. I believe my mother is a hero for many reasons. She’s a teacher, can befriend a complete stranger, and loves to volunteer. In my eyes, my mother is what I call a hero.

The Economic Economy Of Australia - 1777 Words

Every year, the statistical organization of each country will count the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, and calculate the growth rate compared with other countries. In general, GDP growth has become an important manifestation of the country s comprehensive national strength. In economics, GDP is an important index of a country s economic health. It is important because each component of GDP will represent in daily life. In Australia, GDP growth dependent on its service sector, manufacturing and agriculture, in which the service sector accounted for the highest proportion of total GDP. Moreover, Australia is a country which has rich resources, and this become another economic growth point that different from other countries.†¦show more content†¦For different purpose, the different GDP frames will be used. â€Å"Real GDP is the value of final goods and services produced in a given year when valued at the prices of a reference base year; Nominal GDP is the value of final goods and services produced in a given year when valued at the prices of that year. The maximum level of real GDP that can be produced while avoiding shortages of labour, capital, land and entrepreneurial ability that would bring rising inflation is called potential GDP (McTaggart, Findlay Parkin, 2012).† In this essay, GDP stands for real GDP, and real GDP can be calculated by either the expenditure approach or the income approach. In this essay, the expenditure approach will be used. Aggregate expenditure describes the relationship between total consumption and national income. It can be calculated with a formula: AE = C + I + G + NX. In this formula, the C stands for household consumption, the I stands for investment expenditure, the G stands for government expenditure and the NX stands for net export expenditure. The change of these components will eventually affect real GPD. The expenditure approach is important because it can tell the government of consumersâ⠂¬â„¢ demand so that the government can better allocate resources. It can also convey the economic situation signals to the central bank to help them to carry out macroeconomic regulation and control. The figure 1 below shows the aggregate expenditure

Essay on Creation vs. Evolution - 1373 Words

The purpose of this essay is not to prove â€Å"Darwinian† evolution, as the writer would be performing a feat already done by others, but to examine a certain track of thought amongst Creation proponents. Specifically their noting certain improbabilities of evolutions ability to â€Å"design.† Ill evade defining the individual concepts because theyve all been described before, and far better than I could manage, although Ill point out that micro/macro evolution distinction is largely Creationist lingo, as is the â€Å"kind† terminology. In the text, Ill refer to evolutionary theory/macro-evolution as â€Å"evolution† and creation/intelligent design as â€Å"creation†, and proponents of each of them as â€Å"evolutionists† and â€Å"creationists† respectively. If†¦show more content†¦Determining that only a omnipotent creator could devise the design observed due to its example of intelligence. This is entirely evasive. This pr ocess excludes the fact that there is barely a unifying definition of intelligence. In fact, one of the best definitions is given by notable psychologist HJ Eysencks quote, â€Å"Intelligence is what intelligence tests test†. On top of this, evolutionary theory predicts design, in a much more succinct and testable manner than creation. If there is a drum that creationists like to beat more than this intelligence argument, I havent met it. Gravity sorts. Is order intelligence? Magnetism creates phenomena invisible to the naked eye, but with the outward appearance of intelligent purpose. Chemical reactions at times seem magical. These three factors alone make for a vast pallet of behaviors, and also constraints. Because water finds the lowest point, is that an example of intelligence, or gravity? Evolutionists dont recognize micro-evolution as being distinctly different from macro-evolution. Creationists generally believe in the former and not the latter. A good example of the proposed micro-evolutionary process is the speciation of dogs. Creationists claim that there were a mated pair of original dog-like species, or â€Å"kind†, who gradually spread out, and speciated into wolves, dingos, domestic dogs, etc. This isnt, in general, divergent from evolutionary theory, but does display some subtle differences. NoteShow MoreRelatedControvery of Creation vs. Evolution in Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee624 Words   |  3 PagesIn Inherit The Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is about a big trial in a small town, and a controversial Creation versus Evolution debate. There are many characters with flamboyant and powerful personalities. Among them are: Matthew Harrison Brady, and Henry Drummond. Although all of these influential people are po werful, not all of them have the same amount of power, not only over other people, but over themselves as well. 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Evolution Debate1017 Words   |  5 PagesThe creation vs. evolution debate is a question of origins. How did we get here? Were we created or did we evolve randomly? Are we the product of purposeful intelligence or are we merely the end result of countless cosmic accidents? What does the evidence say? Well in this paper I am writing in regards to creation and what I learned and what I believe that is true evidence that God was the one that created us in his image, so here we go. In gen esis 1:1 its tells us in the Beginning God created the