What Is Statistics: Crash Course Statistics #1

Welcome to Crash Course Statistics! In this series we're going to take a look at the important role statistics play in our everyday lives, because statistics are everywhere! Statistics help us better understand the world and make decisions from what you'll wear tomorrow to government policy. But in the wrong hands, statistics can be used to misinform. So we're going to try to do two things in this series. Help show you the usefulness of statistics, but also help you become a more informed consumer of statistics. From probabilities, paradoxes, and p-values there's a lot to cover in this series, and there will be some math, but we promise only when it's most important. But first, we should talk about what statistics actually are, and what we can do with them. Statistics are tools, but they can't give us all the answers.

Episode Notes:

On Tea Tasting:
"The Lady Tasting Tea" by David Salsburg

On Chain Saw Injuries:

Thanks to the following Patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever:

Mark Brouwer, Nickie Miskell Jr., Jessica Wode, Eric Prestemon, Kathrin Benoit, Tom Trval, Jason Saslow, Nathan Taylor, Divonne Holmes à Court, Brian Thomas Gossett, Khaled El Shalakany, Indika Siriwardena, Robert Kunz, SR Foxley, Sam Ferguson, Yasenia Cruz, Daniel Baulig, Eric Koslow, Caleb Weeks, Tim Curwick, Evren Türkmenoğlu, Alexander Tamas, Justin Zingsheim, D.A. Noe, Shawn Arnold, mark austin, Ruth Perez, Malcolm Callis, Ken Penttinen, Advait Shinde, Cody Carpenter, Annamaria Herrera, William McGraw, Bader AlGhamdi, Vaso, Melissa Briski, Joey Quek, Andrei Krishkevich, Rachel Bright, Alex S, Mayumi Maeda, Kathy & Tim Philip, Montather, Jirat, Eric Kitchen, Moritz Schmidt, Ian Dundore, Chris Peters, Sandra Aft, Steve Marshall

Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

[dennyzavada]

A physicist, a chemist, and a statistician go hunting. They come upon a deer and the physicist takes a shot that misses 5 feet to the left. The chemist then takes a shot that misses 5 feet to the right. The statistician declares, "We got him!!"

[y.desiree]

1:07 - History of stat
2:31 - Definition of stat
4:22 - Proxy
5:20 - Two main types of stat
5:23 - Descriptive stat
7:33 - Inferential stat
9:53 - If stat were a superhero
10:01 - Importance of stat
10:33 - Continuation of importance of stat
10:17 - Comparison between descriptive and inferential stat
10:43 - Continuation of definition of stat

[erinthehermit]

"Statistics: when you don't know for sure, but doing nothing isn't an option" is going on a poster on my classroom wall, like, ASAP.

[frankietimmz]

I’m halfway through my first year of a psychology and I can see this being endlessly helpful

[karisa]

I just finished a summer statistics course. I thought it was going to be really difficult, but it was actually fun. I completely fell in love with statistics this summer. Don't let everyone get into your head about how much it sucks; it isn't true!

[pw]

A basic understanding of statistics is important. Most decisions in politics are made based on statistics. Or rather: should be made based on statistics. Please more of this! What a great course!

[ginnylily]

i swear you guys know my class schedule

[sakshamrewari]

BOX PLOTS, NORMAL DISTRIBUTION AND A PIE CHART OVER A HUGE GRID AS BACKGROUND DECORATION! You're doing it right.

[MissingVoidTV]

So glad you're covering this! Got a whole module dedicated to this at uni every year! Thank you!

[loujay]

Finally Crash Course has Statistics series !!!!

I have been waiting forever!!!

[JorgeGarcia-hmit]

I have just discovered this series and i can only say thank you. I started learning statistics last year and these videos give me a much wider view of this subject, which i really appreciate

[phillipcook]

Hey! I love CrashCourse's content, but my wife is hard of hearing and really benefits from having captions. Is there a chance that you could upload the script to the video? We would both really appreciate it, and it would make a huge difference for the hard of hearing audience.

[AnnieCushing]

Why would anyone thumb these videos down? They're fantastic and make statistics interesting and easy to understand.

[lindseydowney]

I'm so happy this came out when it did. I have to take statistics this semester and I've already started to fall behind. I'm so excited for the course! thank you!!

[Cole]

I love these crash course series. sometimes I feel just a general overview of knowledge would suffice for my application and this is a great way to get it!

[ShirinRose]

I'm really excited for this series. For years I've hated statistics because I had a really boring stats lecturer at uni and I barely learnt anything, yet I know that statistics is really important. Hopefully I can learn so much more from Adriene!

[RedHair]

Omg
The Mongol as the logo for "exceptional waffles" refers to the inside joke "Mongolians are the exception"... This is genius.

[ganaraminukshuk]

1. I spent more time reading the little blurbs on the intro sequence than I'd like to admit.

2. There's literally a waffle-related subreddit.

[Mrchair-bkns]

I just started my statistics module. This is insane.

[dtremenak]

The background set design for this series is *really* fantastic...props to whoever is responsible for that. Adriene is doing a great job presenting, too.