Simple Explanations of Basic Statistics Concepts (Part 1)

Simple and clear explanations of different statistical concepts

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Introduction

My professor once mentioned that if you can explain a term to someone who is completely unfamiliar with it and have them get the concept, then you are regarded to be knowledgeable about the subject. This method is also the approach I've taken whenever I've learned something new. As I am reviewing interview questions, I realize how important it is to practice this active way of learning.

There are a lot of definitions and a lot of knowledge to cover in Statistics. That's why I think the best way to do a review is to write and explain it to people. With this idea in mind, this article will discuss some fundamental statistical concepts that I believe any statistics learner should be familiar with.

Population and Sample

Suppose my family owns a lemon farm. When harvest season comes, we want to know the average size of lemons. There are thousands of lemons on the farm, and of course, we cannot measure or weigh all of them. So, we decide to take samples of them and get the average from each sample.

All lemons on the farm are called population, and each group of lemons picked is a sample.