Topics in a Probability and

Statistics Course
To learn more about a topic listed below, click the topic name to go to
the corresponding MathWorld classroom page.
Arithmetic Mean

A synonym for average.

Binomial Distribution

The discrete probability distribution of

obtaining exactly n successes out
of N trials.

Box-and-Whisker Plot

A histogram-like method of displaying

data.

Central Limit Theorem

The theorem that any set of variates with

a distribution having a finite mean and
variance tends to the normal distribution.
This allows statisticians to approximate
sets of data with unknown distributions
as being normal.

Chi-Squared Test

A statistical test for evaluating

hypotheses involving enumerated data.

Conditional Probability

The probability of an event, assuming

that some other event has already
occurred.

Confidence Interval

An interval in which a measurement or

trial falls that corresponds to a given
probability

Correlation Coefficient

A measure of how closely a best-fit curve

matches the given data.

Covariance

A measure of how strongly correlated a

set of variables is.

Erf

The error function involved in integrating

the normal distribution.

Histogram

The grouping of data into bins, plotting

the number of members in each bin
against the bin number.

Hypothesis

(1) In statistics, a statement that can be

tested. (2) A rough synonym of
conjecture. (3) In logic, the first part of an
implication.

Independent Events

A property of two events A and B if their

probabilities satisfy P(AB) = P(A) P(B).

Law of Large Numbers

One of several theorems expressing the

idea that as the number of trials of a
random process increases, the
percentage difference between the
expected and actual result values goes
to zero.

Least Squares Fitting

A mathematical procedure for finding the

best-fitting curve to a given set of points
by minimizing the sum of the curve's
squared offsets from the data.

Mean

(1) A quantity corresponding to one of

possibly several different definitions of
the "average" of a set of values.
Examples include the arithmetic mean
and the geometric mean. (2) The
arithmetic mean (also called the
average).

Median

(1) The statistical median, which is an

order statistic that gives the "middle"
value of a sample. (2) A triangle median,
which is a line segment from one of a
triangle's vertices to the midpoint of the
opposite side.

Moment

A measure of the expected deviation

from the mean. The most important

example of a moment is the variance.

Normal Distribution

Outlier

Paired t-Test

Poisson Distribution

The distribution associated with most

sets of real-world data. Due to the shape
of this distribution, it is also famously
called the "bell curve."
A point in a sample that has a
substantially different value from the
rest.
A statistical test that determines whether
the means of two sample sets differ
significantly.
The distribution giving the probability of
obtaining exactly n successes in N trials
for Poisson processes such as
radioactive decay and lotteries.

Probability

The branch of mathematics that studies

the possible outcomes of given events
together with the outcomes' relative
likelihoods and distributions.

Sample

From a population, a subset that is

obtained to investigate the parent
population's properties.

Scatter Diagram

A graphic which shows data where one

variable has been plotted against a
second variable. Scatter diagrams are
used when investigating correlation
between two variables.

Standard Deviation

A statistic that measures how spread out

a set of data is. It is defined as the
square root of the variance.

Statistical Test

A test used to determine the statistical

significance of an observation.

Statistics

The mathematical study of the likelihood

and probability of events occurring,
based on known information and inferred
by taking a limited number of samples.

Uniform Distribution

A distribution that has constant

probability.

Variance

A measure of the expected deviation

from the mean. The square root of the
variance is the standard deviation.

z-Score

The difference from the mean divided by

the standard deviation. Also called the
"standard score."