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1.1. Overview

In this chapter we will present a working definition of "statistics" and describe some common practices. Specifically:

• we will define statistics and talk about its usefulness in general terms
• we will discuss what a random sample is, how to pick one, and why it is useful 
• we will discuss some terminology that will be used throughout the course such as
• categorical and numeric variables
• ordinal and nominal variables
• heterogeneous and homogeneous distribution

There will be an end-of-chapter quiz, so make sure, in particular, you know what all of the above terms mean.