Why You Need Statistics
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You use statistics in many situations in everyday life, often without even noticing! The most important feature of statistics is that it provides us with knowledge—with a way of understanding the world around us better. Do you remember the last time you had a fever? You measured your body temperature with a thermometer one morning and saw that it was °F. This means you had a fever, and that you were sick.
You have a fever when your body temperature is about °F or higher. By contrast, the number °F is the accepted normal body temperature. But how do we know that °F is the temperature that shows that you’re well? The number emerged from thousands of observations made over several years. Because we’ve done these observations, we now have a number for what a normal body temperature should be. Statistics were used as an aid to help determine if you’re sick.
Statistics is also very important when predicting something in the future. You know that it’s usually warmer in July than in November, but is it always like this? Maybe next year it’ll suddenly be warmer in November than in July?
Statistics can answer such questions! In statistics, observations from the past are used to try to predict what the future will look like. This includes anything from predicting the temperatures for next summer, to the sales of phones, or the growth of an animal population.
Think About This
How often do you experience an inaccurate weather forecast?
When weather predictions are made for the next several days, different temperatures might be predicted by different meteorologists. Maybe you saw a forecast on the TV where they said it’ll rain tomorrow, but in the newspaper, they said it would just be cloudy. This can seem a bit weird—why aren’t the forecasts the same?
Well, even if we almost never get a completely correct weather forecast, it’s usually pretty accurate. That’s because a lot of information—a lot of data—about the weather patterns over the last several days has been gathered together. These observations are used statistically, to predict future weather as accurately as possible.
Imagine what each day would be like without any weather forecasts! It would be much more difficult to know what to wear and how to prepare, so the weather forecast is something we all use and appreciate, even if it’s not 100% perfect.
