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Introduction to Statistics · Acedra
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Introduction to Statistics
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0:00
Hi everybody! I’m Adriene Hill. Welcome to Crash Course Statistics! And by everybody. I don’t mean that literally. There are give or take 7.6 Billion people in the world. When we hit a million views...that’s still only point-zero-one (0.01%) percent of the population. So maybe Hi Almost Nobody! Statistics are everywhere. Some are explicitly part of our lives….like ...batting averages in baseball...expected goals in soccer...or the percent chance the meteorologist gives that it’ll snow...They’re
0:28
in the stone-faced warning from your doctor: “this procedure has a 2 percent chance of failure." Statistics make a very good case for NOT buying lottery tickets. Other times statistics are less obvious--but still with us. Insurers use them to set their rates. Researchers use them to try to figure out if a drug can actually help regrow the hair on the top of your head. Or if there’s a correlation between dog ownership and stress reduction.
0:54
Big retailers hire statisticians...to figure out how to market to us better. Apparently Target can pinpoint when a pregnant woman might be due to give birth--based on a change in what she buys. Stores also use statistics to figure out how to stock their shelves. Turns out a whole lot of people rush to buy strawberry pop-tarts before a hurricane hits. So in advance of storms, Wal-Mart stocks up. For real.
1:16
And statistics is central to some of the cool technology we use everyday, like Siri and Alexa. Mark Twain popularized the quote...“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” And...yes statistics can be used to lie. But they can also be used to help find the truth. The purpose of statistics is to to find the truth. Statistics allow us to uncover simplicity...inside complexity. To make sense of our world.
1:43
And part of what we’ll do in this series--is figure out how to tell the difference between statistics used for good. Understanding. Truth-telling. And the statistics that we should question. That are being used to mischaracterize the world. Understanding how statistics works, even if you aren’t running regressions for fun….on the weekends...can help you ask good questions about other people’s studies and discoveries. I’m Adriene Hill. More than likely….I’ll be your host for the series.
2:07
There is a one-in-74.8 million chance I will be killed this year by an asteroid or other near earth object collision. When I’m not hanging out here. Or researching the odds of death by freak accident….I work in public radio. I also co-hosted Crash Course Economics. Where a statistically significant number of you who commented didn’t like how...and how much ...I moved my hands. So I’ll work on it. I’m excited for this series. Some of these things I’ve thought about.
2:33
Some, I’ll be learning along with you. It’s gonna be fun. Cause at the end of the day statistics are about us. People. And our world. And how we relate to each other. I’ll see you next week!
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