Technical Articles From University of Washington

Applied Statistics and Experimental Design

Jul 16, 2023 | Fritz Scholz

Statistics originally served to describe matters of the state (status of state) by capturing numerically various aspects of full populations. Today this is called a census, from Latin censere (to count or estimate). Recall the historical census of Emperor Augustus. Nowadays the field of statistics focusses mainly on samples, i.e., part of the total. The goal is to make statements or conclusions about the whole population. This process is referred to as induction, from Latin inducere (to lead to). Its validity depends crucially on the process of sampling. Sample   example from Latin exemplum.